Jinxed, Viced, Yet True
by Guardian55
Summary: For the last few months in the City of Progress's slums, there has been a hero/vigilante who has fought not for himself but purely for others. Much good has come to Piltover since. Yet, where did the guy come from? Why help? Riddles without any real answers... At least not until his missions lead him into working with both a hectic Loose Cannon as well as bold Piltovian Enforcer.
1. Arguing With One's Self

**C****hapter One: "Arguing With One's Self and Rocket Launcher"**

"_If there is one thing that I certainly know about this world, then it is this: no matter where, when, how, or to whom, an adventure can just begin at the blink of an eye. And why wouldn't it? Without it, life would be that much boring, wouldn't it? Ha ha, YES!"_ **– Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer**

* * *

"UGH, Fishbones, there's nothing for us to do here anymore! The City of Progress? Pft, more like the city of BORING again! Where did all of my popularity go? Why are there no more people trying to invade my playground so we can play? Where are the cops? Where are the thugs? HMF!"

"Um, well, you not being chased? Now that IS strange. It used to be so lively around here and now things really have settled down, haven't they? Hey, speaking of settling down, maybe this is where you can finally fulfill your lifelong dream of buying a house on the coast, paying bills, and living an honest life like everyone-"

"BAH, haven't we gone over that more than enough, fishbrain? That's YOUR dream! Not mine! And as we both know, my dreams come before yours soooooo… You as well as me will wreak havoc until the end of our days! You're going to be my chaos dealing machine for forever! Ha ha ha!"

"Aw but Jinx, I don't want to be your chaos dealing machine for forever! What about making some family and friends and having some peace and quiet for a change? Since you started helping that Protector goof, you've been a bit, well, lost in the clouds about the whole prospect of mayhem and chaos and-"

"No, no, no, no, NO! Why do you insist on being such a party pooper all of the time, Fishbones? Why can't you be the strong silent type like Pow-Pow?"

"Pow-Pow is strong and silent?! Tell that to all of the pests you've scared off with him in Piltover's slums for the last few months! Bah-hah, if he's the silent type then, yeah, I'm actually a freaking squirt gun and you're a nun of Demacia-"

"Shut it, rust bucket! You owe me so much you know! I created you, remember? Thus, I own you and I've even carried you everywhere since without asking for hardly anything in return!"

"I didn't ask you to make me… And besides, you adore the fact that you have to carry me around everywhere you go. Without me, you wouldn't ever have had any explosive fun. Without me, you wouldn't have ever gotten the appropriate exercise that has made as well as kept you looking like the cute, skinny, petite, enticing, crazy, little touched in the head citizen of Runeterra that you are today-"

"Gosh golly, Fishbones, cram your trap shut! You can be SO obnoxious sometimes!"

"Says the girl who takes every compliment as an insult. Says the girl who takes pleasure in blowing up things. Says the girl who doesn't know or will ever know what to do with herself-"

"What are you mumbling about?"

"NOTHING! Nothing at all."

"Then if you're grumbling about nothing, why are you shaking? Aw, are you afraid of me dismantling you? Don't be. You can stop shaking."

"I'm not afraid and I'm not shaking. You're making me shake on purpose, in fact. So stop it. STOP!"

"Oh Fishbones, heh heh, you're so easy to tease! Just like this city used to be. Nowadays though, things just aren't the same… Why isn't it as easy to make everyone panic, to make them chase after me, to make them want the summoners of whatever order to summon me to wherever field where I can REALLY have a fun time? BAH, I'm so freaking bored, Fishbones!"

For the northeastern City of Progress of Runeterra, "Piltover", the day in question was Friday. As for the exact date itself, it was October 19th with the weather beginning to shift from what had once been the warm summer season to the colorful autumn. Put simply, for all of Runeterra, it was still comfortable outside during sunlight's hours, yet chilly during moonlight's.

Indeed, as sad as it was for most throughout the presently quiet techmaturgy city softly illuminated against the shadows by yordle genius "Heimerdinger's" star rods, as the clock tower in popular Diamond Square began to toll its usual eleven times to signify it was 11:00pm into the nighttime, the warm days of summer were becoming scarcer in number. Instead, even with the sun out and about, the chilliness of winter's gradual coming was obviously intensifying.

As of late, the various colored leaves upon trees had started rapidly falling from their appropriate tree limbs, Piltovians alike had taken to staying indoors to stay content with themselves, and as for the nights… well, brr, those dark hours were the clearest of signs that old man winter's chilly reign would descend upon everything soon enough.

For Runeterra in general – be it Demacia, Noxus, Freljord, Piltover, Zaun, the rune scarred southern regions beyond the Great Barrier even – every passing day was getting noticeably shorter. Whether it was accepted or not, the half of the year where daytime had the shorter end of the stick and nighttime had the longer was upon everyone's doorstep. As the warmth in the air was dropping, farmers were putting away their livestock along with equipment, sailors were toughening themselves, families had taken to cuddling around the fireplace, and every army anywhere had bolstered itself for the coming freezing snows.

Still, refocusing onto the technological City of Progress, the Piltovians had always considered themselves quite suited for the comings as well as goings of seasons. With their insulated housing, gas lines, plumbing, oil lamps, hextech gear, plus so much more fine things founded by the ingenious minds of researchers, discoverers, and tinkerers in the past, Piltover's citizens found it more than easy nowadays to adapt to the increasingly chilly days if not nights that had arrived. If anything, feeling comfy while watching the leaves descend in torrents in the occasionally blustering winds, the advanced city took great delight in the adjustment from summer to autumn.

So nowadays, by daytime, Piltover would live in peace, prosperity, along with contentment like it had always done. By nighttime, as the sun set in the western horizon, its populace would take to remaining inside where it was warm. Although, at moments, several folk would even bundle up against the nippy night atmosphere to start up bonfires in their backyards, lots, and wherever such a thing could be had. And there in the cold darkness yet warmed by the dancing flames, friends along with families would gather around those fires to chat, to laugh, to predict how bad the winter weather would be this certain year.

Yet, in the southern region of the City of Progress, across the historical "Herald Bridge" that reached across the wide "Posei River" to connect both north and south Piltover, there was a certain girl who had no fire to enjoy, no "real" friends to laugh with, and most definitely – or so she liked to tell herself – had no intention of ever doing such a thing as settle down like the many Piltovians whom enjoyed the current late nighttime. Unlike everyone else too, she didn't burden herself with heavy clothing against the supposedly cold weather. Instead, spinning one of the two longer than long braids of blue hair trailing from her head, she took great pleasure in not being warm – in not being like everyone else in the boring world – by barely wearing anything at all.

For very good reason, since she had shown herself to the tranquil community of Piltover nearly three months ago with quite the bang, "Jinx the Loose Cannon" had never been normal in the eyes of anyone. Heh, since the day she had been born at whatever place due to whomever, she herself knew she hadn't been normal. No, not many like she had decided their lifelong dream would be in creating panic, causing chaos, and just breaking rules because rules were made specifically to be broken.

Rules were just limitations, after all. They were simply obstacles. Something that got in one's way. Like buildings… or, ha, people at times.

Really, as it had forever been in the mind of the Loose Cannon, who wanted to be normal? Who didn't want to go on a rampage every so often? Who didn't think it was cool that she had blown up one of Piltover's most secure vaults back in the day as well as escaped the city's finest in the same night without taking a speck of gold?

Blah, who wanted to pay bills, to be within the limits of the law, to be like everyone else? Not this gal! Nuh-uh! Plus, ignoring the chilly breeze that came every so often tonight, was her outfit – a lightweight kind of bikini/vest with stockings and boots rimmed with bullets – not the most attractive outfit ever? Was it not honestly badass of her to be showing so much skin against the chilly air? To keep being a bad girl? Yeah, she was pretty awesome.

By past personal experience, after having had her own romantic entanglements across Runeterra leading up to this very minute, Jinx knew just how many a guy would agree with her that she was being epic, mysterious, and hot by being so open to the cold. Whether others wanted it or didn't wanted it to be, she was aware her way of life had influence. For deep down, especially among the more organized of men, there was a craving for disorder, for unbalance, for what didn't make sense, for the complete freedom to do whatever.

And as for those few individuals that had actually thought themselves close to her before she dashed away without warning, before she was off again to be free, before she broke many a heart, Jinx had allowed them to have a brief taste of being jinxed… Of, heh, her.

Yet, it was on this certain night in question, on October 19th around 11:00, that she found she was fighting herself… over several things she never actually believed she would.

Firstly, due to what she knew already, she was bored out of her demented little mind. Secondly, she was thinking about what course of action to follow next to get over being bored; whether to remain in or depart ever so boring Piltover. Thirdly, most crucial of all… well, she was actually attempting to not be jinxed herself. Simply put, trying to elude the constant rising as well as falling of the rate of her rapidly beating heart in her small chest at the thought, she wasn't desperately trying to gain the inspiration to depart the city but a certain somebody special – no, NOT special – behind her.

Yet, that was just it.

After so many times that she had easily made others fall head over heels for her before she cruelly vanished from them without a trace, this time proved opposite for Jinx. This time… she had been jinxed by someone else. This time, no matter how much she argued with herself/Fishbones about it, she couldn't see herself simply leaving that someone behind and was downright frightened at the prospect of that same somebody maybe leaving her.

At the precise moment of her feeling conflicted about possibly being jinxed by someone other than her own self for a change, seated upon the edge of the roof of a random building of the slums that allowed her to firmly gaze across the other rooftops towards the twinkling north of the City of Progress, the Loose Cannon was currently yet animatedly discussing several serious matters with what appeared to be a… shark shaped rocket launcher that rested upon her bare left shoulder and a pink gatling-gun which was set next to her to her right?

Again, heh, Jinx was not normal in the slightest. It only made sense that she, having been a destructive psychopath for most of her life, would not have literal friends to speak of nor to.

Nah, during her years as a hectic criminal, taking to mostly being independent of anyone or anything by using this practice often, she had forever taken to speaking to her weapons, "Fishbones" the rocket launcher and "Pow-Pow" the gatling-gun, for comfort, for friendship, for whatever remained of her sanity.

Thus, seated upon the edge of the roof of whatever structure, lazily spinning one of her braids in the nippy air while her bare legs swung to and fro in the most attractive way, Jinx had been crazily arguing with her rocket launcher since the sun had set long ago. Finally, it was with the outburst of "I'M BORED" that she grumpily laid herself out on her back.

Lying there on the building's top, she gazed up at the clear, dark, yet starry heavens blessed with a full moon tonight. For her own reason, something of a contently small smile flickered across her pale expression followed by an entertained bite of her lower lip before, with much clanking, she had Fishbones impatiently clank at her from the background.

"Oh, you're bored, Jinx? I never would have guessed! If you hadn't been freaking shouting that right in my ear all night long, that is!"

Then, for the briefest moment, Jinx had Fishbones appear to be pondering over something as she grumbled for him in a deep tone, "Wait, hold on, how does that work? I don't have ears… Anyway, as always – although I'd have it differently – I'm right here at your behest. So, if you're so very lacking in something to do… why not go to the wealthy north district of town and blow up a bank?"

Raising one of her thin eyebrows that reflected a sparkle of light from her lightly crimson eyes which had driven many a figure to not be able to resist her charms, the Loose Cannon wondered back in her normal voice, "A bank, Fishbones? Seriously?"

"Yeah! If no one chases you after something like that, you'd still get your message across to everyone because you'd cause quite a financial setback for all who have deposited in its vault! With a blast from me, all of that money would go POOF and the economy would be hit hard without-"

"No. Boring. Been there done that. Yawn." The Loose Cannon yawned at her own voiced idea, making Fishbones appear to be taken aback by her lack in usual enthusiasm, "Not interested, rustbutt. Think of something else. Quick like, chop-chop!"

"I, uh, um, okay, well, hm… I GOT IT! How about we steal another tug boat like we did last month, harness it to the fanciest ships in the docks, then set them all out on a direct course out from the bay into the Guardian Sea or, basically, the middle of nowhere! Think of the frustration, the mayhem, and all of the work the cops will have to go through to get all of that property back-"

"Pass. Ahem, that was thrilling then. Not now. Too much work, too much hassle, not enough reward came out of it. Next!"

"Urgh, I, mrgh, we, hurgh… Okay, okay, okay! How about we set out looking for the guy who has been making things boring around here then?" Fishbones exclaimed, several sparks drifting from his metal maw into the shadows in the meantime, "No, not those two losers who are supposedly this boring city's finest but the guy who stole your tin monkey toy, who drove away all of those thugs that kept coming after you, who has made this city so boring again!"

"Go and hunt down Mr. I can do anything and take away all of your fun in the process?" Jinx tittered to herself, carefully thinking of the certain stranger she had come to know, despise, yet consider fun for the past few months, "Fishbones… Ugh, you know I'm looking for a fun time, not a challenge."

"A challenge?" Fishbones clanked back, chuckling to himself, "Pft, it wouldn't be a challenge if you hadn't let your guard down around him, if you hadn't come to like having him around, if you hadn't let him snatch your tin monkey, Mojo, from your pocket and claim you wouldn't see it again if you didn't promise to behave, to aid him, to help each other find some higher purpose, to make this place so very unbearably lacking in things to do and make you even question if you should leave or not tonight-"

"CRAM A HAM IN IT, FISHBONES!" Jinxed roared, sweeping her bangs out of her red face while trying to act like she didn't know why the City of Progress was so quiet nowadays, "AUGH, DON'T YOU START BLAMING ME FOR THINGS BEING SO QUIET AND PEACEFUL AROUND HERE! DON'T YOU DARE!"

"I wasn't blaming you, Jinx… Especially not you." The rocket launcher clunked back, a puff of powder falling from his maw meanwhile, "I'm just saying that if you continue to sit here arguing over nothing while twiddling your thumbs and spinning your braids, we might as well be in a house on the coast paying bills and living a normal life. That or you need to leave this city right now. I mean, if you can't rampage in this place then find another to wreak havoc upon. Reclaim your freedom again. Move on. You've done it dozens of times before."

"Not without Mojo. We can't go without poor little Mojo." Jinx argued to herself, actually feeling her heart might very well literally be experiencing a bit of regret at the thought of leaving this boring city behind, of leaving a certain guy behind.

"Oh forget that tin monkey already and let's just go back to Zaun!" Fishbones growled, acting out the frustrated part of Jinx that was telling her that she needed to make a choice tonight or just quit fooling herself about the truth and admit she was jinxed, "Let's go back to interfering with the work of mad scientists, blowing up thief guilds, interrupting dark magic groups-"

"Nope."

"Uh… No?"

"Nope. If you ever took the time to notice, I'm the one with legs, Fishbones. Something you can't say you have." The Loose Cannon stated, giving her rocket launcher her most humored face, "So, as it's always been, we will be going where I decide… and before we go anywhere to get away from this place, Mojo has to be rescued!"

"Meh, that tin monkey doesn't mean that much to you, Loose Cannon. He who holds him hostage does though… doesn't he?"

At this proclamation from herself to herself in a sense, Jinx showed actual shock at Fishbones.

Her red eyes narrowed at the rocket launcher next as she voiced for him, saying what her heart – not her mind nor gut – was actually intent on doing tonight, "Yeah, you're lying to yourself. You've been lying to yourself. If you go to save Mojo tonight, you won't. Nah, you'll go because, for the hundredth time, you want to see he who's been holding your leash, he who's been in control of your playground for the last few months, and perhaps ask him about something more personal-"

"He doesn't have me by any leash or anything, Fishbones!" The Loose Cannon argued with herself, having stopped twirling her braid to focus on what was being discussed at the moment, "Stop talking! You don't know-"

"We'reonlygoing," Jinx rapidly cut across herself, suddenly shoving Fishbones into her confused expression as she mumbled in his voice, "tosupposedlysaveMojobecauseyouwanttoseethatguyaga inbecauseeachtimeyoudoyourheartgoesallaflutterandy ourfacereddensandyourbrainburnsoutandallyouendupdo ingissighing,swooning,andcursingyourselflater! Hah, I said it! I said – Mmph!"

"That's it! You're on a timeout, Fishbones!" Jinx exclaimed while shutting the rocket launcher's maw, absolutely terrified but a bit relieved also to feel her heart go a flutter at what had just been revealed by, well, herself, "Now shut up and let me see about entertaining myself! Ugh, I swear, one of these days… I'm going to REPLACE you!"

"That threat is so VERY old, Jinx. You're never going to replace me." Fishbones clanked back, actually seeming to snicker on his own too, "I'm your chaos dealing machine, remember? Forever and always, you're going to need me. Especially tonight. In order to get Mojo back, I might just have to _blow_ a certain someone… apart for you, won't I?"

Jinx didn't reply to what had been said right off. Instead, with a growing sense of dread, now quite flustered over what was being debated, she had gotten to her feet.

What exactly was it that she was having difficulty in getting over tonight? Was it really over how peaceful everything was? Was it truly about everything being so boring? Or was it, as Fishbones had just spouted in a torrent of words and would seem so very clear to another soul… about something far more tedious; far more personal?

"We've held our part of the bargain with _him_, haven't we?" The Loose Cannon questioned aloud, glancing at her rocket launcher curiously, "We've done our part in helping him seeking a so called higher purpose, right?"

"Yeah." Fishbones said in turn, "_He's _where he wants to be. Therefore, he has no more right in keeping Mojo locked up. He has no more right in expecting us to stick around anymore. We owe him nothing else. If anything, he owes us plenty. In the least, he owes us your tin monkey back and cannot deny you your freedom any longer."

There on the roof, her braids fluttering in the cold wind, preparing herself for what could very well turn out to be the hardest thing for her to do or maybe the best decision she would ever make in her very rushed life, Jinx holstered Fishbones as well as Pow-Pow back over her shoulders.

When her weapons were nice and secure, the Loose Cannon resolutely chortled to her most unpredictable self, "Yeah, Augus… Fishbones is right. Here and now, you owe me Mojo back. Not only that, you owe me big time for everything."

Then, when she was running to leap onto the next nearby rooftop to purposefully head east, she went on to laugh to herself, "It's been fun, Augus. Blowing up stuff, taking names, roughing up the bullies on our playground, it really has been a blast… But our fun has to end. I need Mojo back. And then I need to be the Loose Cannon again. Emphasis on the _loose_, mind."

Yet, when she lazily if not fearlessly jumped the good few feet over the high gap of open air to the next rooftop and smoothly landed to go on roof jumping, did Jinx really mean what she had said about this "Augus" fellow? Or, like her darling Fishbones had recently quoted, was she only lying to herself some more?

Could Jinx really overcome being jinxed herself? Could she really say goodbye to he who had turned her world upside down when all of her had been so against the idea from the start?

Well, there was only one way for the Loose Cannon to find out, wasn't there?

No matter how challenging the task would be, if she wanted to be loose again – which she certainly did – then she had to retrieve Mojo from where he was being held… and not dare look back once she had completed the task. For if she did look back, if she did hesitate, she would risk starting something she wouldn't know how to possibly get away from let alone endure; that complicated little yet massive thing known as _love_.

* * *

**End of "Arguing With One's Self and Rocket Launcher"…**


	2. What Was, What Is, What Shall Be?

**C****hapter Two: "What Was, What Is, What Shall Be?"**

"_Although I am no expert on the exact matter in question, the ways of love can indeed be considered one of the most challenging elements in this world. Let us look at it as a duel. If you win the duel, you win one of the greatest rewards possible. If you lose, however… you may be forever ashamed afterwards. Which somewhat explains why most – unlike myself and a few others – are so resistant in accepting that kind of duel in the first place."_ **– Fiora, the Grand Duelist**

* * *

To the few that knew him well enough like presently troubled, roof traversing Jinx, the young man who was holding the blue haired terrorist's tin monkey hostage and whom she was supposedly going to say her final farewell to tonight, his actual name was "Augus Cousitar".

As he had come to be grandly known by everyone else throughout the City of Progress nowadays though, he was the fabled figure entitled the "Enduring Protector"; a praised vigilante, a mercenary, a hero altogether, who had defeated, routed, intimidated, bullied, and plain humiliated a number of former criminals, gangs, posers, along with plenty of other unfavorable characters of the southern slums for the past months. Of course, heh heh, he couldn't have ever hoped to achieve such a miraculous feat or gained an epic reputation without the aid, input, along with occasional sheer firepower of Jinx on the side.

Together, having taken the meaning of justice to a whole new amusing level during recent months, the Enduring Protector as well as Loose Cannon had been the ones that had made the City of Progress so very peaceful tonight. So very, ugh, boring.

Yes… Um, as awkward if not funny as it was for her to admit, for the last number of months up to this point, the Loose Cannon had somewhat played the part of hero alongside the Enduring Protector. Well, nah, _they_ weren't fully heroes but free roamers, rule breakers, a bod boy as well as girl. Actually, hold on, _he_ could say he was a hero while _she_ couldn't because she didn't want to be because being a hero meant things got harder, tedious, complicated… like this night was proving to be.

Either way, during her earlier days as partner to him, Jinx had indeed – willing or not willing – joined Augus whenever he had fought to free the slums, needed any intelligence gathering, or even when he simply needed someone to talk with about random things. And, boy oh boy, even if she hadn't really participated in the past, he had been quite the enigmatic talker about missions, morals, victories, losses, friends, enemies, plus more.

Truly, while they had worked together to make Piltover so quiet these days, the unexpected partnership between the Enduring Protector and Loose Cannon hadn't exactly been agreed upon then or even now through normal means. At the time, Jinx had only decided to help Augus because the sound of blowing up heists, showing up thugs, and making fun of the City of Progress's most wanted indeed sounded grander than grand for entertainment. It had been a better source of fun than being too elusive for the police, anyway.

Then, as for the real reason for why she'd helped Piltover in the slightest, Augus had surprisingly raided Jinx's own secret home – a random base located in the most remote parts near the docks – and stolen poor little Mojo from her – one of her dearest items for her own reasons – making her have little other choice than join in on his crusade against the crime in the slums when he approached her about it.

Still, even if she was fighting herself about the subject, even if she felt like he had put a leash on her the instant he had revealed he had stolen her favorite tin crank-up monkey toy from her temporary home, Jinx couldn't help but admit… that Augus had proven time and time again to be rather fun by taking the law into his own hands, to be a lethal bad boy himself during any fight he'd been involved in, as well as never seemed to stop being full of surprises.

Indeed, over the course of their odd journey to combat crime together, the Loose Cannon had very well witnessed just how strong, how different, how very entertaining the Enduring Protector could be when on or off the job of watching over everyone he considered his friend; even her.

It had actually been nearly two months back – about a month after Vi, Caitlyn, all of Piltover had been shown up at the hardiest bank vault in Piltover by the cheeky Loose Cannon – that Jinx had met Augus for the first time.

There on the roof of a structure overlooking "Emblem Street" in the city's northwest, after having just blown up a local government garage full of police equipment, gear, vehicles, so on, the Loose Cannon had turned away to leave. With a great grin on her pale face, knowing the important figures of Piltover – especially the loser enforcer with her hextech gauntlets – would not at all like what she had done to their crucial resources, she had only gone several steps though before she realized she wasn't as alone as she'd formerly thought.

"That little performance you just pulled off," A cool voice had chuckled from behind her, making her turn about to see Augus Cousitar – his well-toned figure casually dressed in a long sleeved shirt of brown with a black vest over it, his jeans a bit faded from use, his boots worn yet holding together, his wind swept hair the dirtiest soil shade, and his eyes the deepest sapphire – for the very first time, "it could have been done better. I thought you were the terrifying Loose Cannon. Not a conscious terrorist."

At that point on that day, at having heard him actually mock her on her supposed lack of work on having blown up a portion of Piltover's police resources, Jinx didn't know why she hadn't whipped out Pow-Pow and filled Augus full of lead then and there. Maybe him coming out into the open to lecture her without hiding his face had been such an interesting first for her that she hadn't thought of anything else but to maybe listen to what else he had had to say which, with a bow, he did indeed explain.

"Jinx the Loose Cannon, I presume? Of course you are. Who else would dress like that? None other than the supposed terror of Piltover, the breaker of rules, the bringer of chaos." Augus had said to Jinx, actually stepping towards her with a look of growing interest rather than disdain, "Hm, well, I would very well be impressed… if your methods held true to the stories related to you."

"My methods don't hold true to the stories about me?" Jinxed had giggled back, lazily twirling her braid as Augus had next circled around her like a hawk that had sighted prey, "And when did I start caring about what others think of my games? Why do you, funny man, think my methods have any kind of plan at all?"

"Well, I've always heard that the Loose Cannon truly is a loose cannon. She is uncatchable, undeniable, as well as merciless." Augus had stated, looking Jinx over with humor now, even going as far as to jokingly flick her other braid, "The first of those two things, you being uncatchable along with undeniable, I cannot deny. Even if I wished to do so at this moment – which I don't – I do not think I could apprehend you for the authorities nor deny you from continuing what you're doing. You'd find some way out eventually. However, we both know the rumor about you being merciless is _false_."

For Jinx, how very odd a thing that had been to hear from another. After she had been running free across Piltover for close to a month, after she had shaken the city to its core, here was a young man saying she was… not merciless? Even though she tried her hardest to seem not so, had he actually hinted then and even believed tonight that she might have a bit of a heart?

"Rules are meant to be broken. I've blown up things all across this boring city." Jinx had answered to Augus's assumption of her not being cold, "I've wrecked special icons, insulted historical idols, demolished balance and replaced it with chaos-"

"Yet, I have yet to see you really aim any harm towards the populace of this fair community, Loose Cannon." Augus had interrupted, now finished in examining the Loose Cannon and stepping back to confidently cross his arms, "Truly, was it not a month or close to a month ago that you showed your face here with much mayhem, catastrophe, discord but no one was seriously hurt? Just startled? Did you not go on to humiliate but not kill Piltover's finest when you sprayed a warning upon this city's heaviest defended bank as well as brought it down?"

At what he had to say next, Augus had glanced down at the burning/shook up Emblem Street that had been quiet until Jinx's bomb had just gone off, "Yet, just like you displayed with your little explosion of that warehouse just now… we both know you've never aimed to intentionally hurt anyone. If you were really merciless like rumored, you would have blown that warehouse up during busy afternoon hours. Not during… well, the slowest morning hours. Duh."

"You're… a funny, funny, funny little man."

"Considering how I've been called worse than that while alive, I suppose I can take that as a compliment." Augus had admitted, nodding his head in thought in the meantime, "Admit it, though. You're aiming to do something else. Perhaps you're crying for help? For a purpose? Tell me, do you go back to whatever home you have and cut your wrists while sobbing in the corners?"

Then, as soon as he had questioned that, in the blink of an eye, Augus had swiftly grabbed one of Jinx's thin wrists as well as released it while saying, "No. There are no cuts, no scratches, nothing that would hint towards you having bottled up emotions, feelings, hatred. Nah, you release it all upon this city. You blow things up… to make a mark in the minds' of the people, eh? How humorous."

This quite astonishing assumption had literally made Jinx raise a humored eyebrow before snickering back, finding it most entertaining to be confronted by someone who was trying to tell her what or whom she was trying to be, "Ha ha, you're something else! You realize who you're talking to, right? You realize that if you weren't proving to be so fun, so entertaining, I would have had Fishbones blast you away long ago, correct?"

"Heh, Fishbones, eh? Look, I know you don't understand me at the moment. Heck, it took me the longest time to figure it out too. Nevertheless, you're lying to yourself about all that you think you know, Loose Cannon." Augus had stated back, truly looking serious about what he had to say, "You don't know what you're doing. You never have and never will. Not unless you hear me out on this."

"Fine. I'll hear you out. You have a minute." Jinx had laughed, preparing Fishbones to open fire after sixty seconds ticked by, "You can talk or begin running. It's your choice but I believe you should pick the latter of the two. It would prove to be more fun for me and Fishbones here. We need the target practice."

"See, that attitude right there is what I'm talking about." Augus had pointed out, not showing any signs of fear nor any hurry to retreat from possibly being blown to pieces, "You say that stuff but do you really mean it? Do you really think through it?"

"Yes, I do." Jinx had stated back, "Fifty seconds left. Then the fun begins."

"Everything that you've blown up here in Piltover, everything that you've supposedly done without a care… has unintentionally spelled something out for you, Jinx. All you have to do is look harder to understand that." Augus had quickly replied, having remained brave at that moment despite the leer he was receiving at his attempts to talk to a terrorist, "Seriously, we're more alike than you think. I've been down a road like yours where I've experienced wanting to take revenge on this world for what I thought was a more than a good reason but got lost along the way-"

"Hah! Me and you alike? I don't even know you! Thirty seconds to go!"

"If you give me the chance, if you hear me out, then we can remedy that. We can get to know each other. We can both do something a lot more fruitful, a lot more satisfying, a lot more fun in this life than just aimlessly targeting random things to watch stone, dust, and fire fly followed by pointless panic-"

"Suddenly, as if I've agreed to something, you're talking _WE_ when there isn't or ever will be." Jinx had giggled, revving up Fishbones with only fifteen seconds to go, "Look, this has been the best fun I've had since forever but your time has run out, bud! Now allow me to introduce you to my friends of various sizes-"

It had been then that Augus, standing right upon the edge of the roof, had whipped out Mojo from his vest's chest pocket and precariously held the item out over a most grim drop. It had been then that Jinx had not shot him up but frozen in place, fretting – for reasons only she could understand – that her tin monkey toy was about to be lost. Naturally, she could get a new one anywhere but Mojo… he was SPECIAL! He was IRREPLACEABLE! He was practically a PART of her!

Yet, most important of all, how had Augus gotten his hands on the toy when it had been hidden better than anything else Jinx possessed! How had the guy known the monkey was so very important to her?

"Ah. And there finally we have it." Augus had breathed not only in relief but also in humor, "Even if it's over this little contraption of yours – quite the smile he has, by the way – you can be reached. As you have shown by not blowing up people but buildings as well as stuff for the past month, you do have some sense, some mercy, after all, Loose Cannon. Now USE it."

"Give me Mojo back." Jinx had immediately growled then, feeling for once that she was not in control of everything nor that she could escape this certain situation without a catch, "How did you even-"

"Is that his name? Mojo? Heh, I like it. I like him. Creative." Augus had complimented, making Jinx actually snicker to herself at the memory while she leapt from roof to roof during the present chilly October night, "As for how I came to possess him, that's my concern as well as secret. Never you mind. However, if he really matters that much to you… I suggest you lower your, um, friends of various sizes and hear me out on what more I have to say."

For a moment, due to stubborn pride, the Loose Cannon hadn't obeyed the voiced suggestion. In immediate turn though, knowing she couldn't have lived as free as she always had if she lost Mojo, she had lowered her friends of various sizes while Augus had remained quite alert for any kind of her, ahem, tricky tricks.

Until that day on that rooftop, never before had Jinx been told what to do or had she imagined being in such a position where someone actually had some kind of control over her. At that instant, at seeing him holding the tin monkey as a bargaining chip, she had hated Augus with a passion. Now, while she traversed the slums by rooftop though, Jinx had actually come to respect his ingenuity, his cunning, his luck for having survived her that day and for even having shown her something since that she'd been blind to for forever until now; her senses, her optimism, her… heart.

"Now that we understand each other a bit more, Jinx, allow me to introduce myself." Augus had explained, gentlemanly bowing slightly next, "I am Augus Cousitar."

"You're not exactly smart… to have told me such a thing, funny man."

"Oh no? Well, regardless, I'm going to be the next best thing that this city dearly needs and you are not only going to help me but-"

"Help you? You're seriously too full of jokes! This getting to be too hilarious-"

"BUT you're going to wake up along the way!" Augus had yelled louder than disinclining Jinx, "And best of all in the coming days, trust me on this, things are going to prove to be very fun for the both of us. Unlike what we've done until now, this will be the most rewarding game either of us have ever played in our, ahem, unique lives."

"I'm going to wake up? I'm going to help you along the way?" Jinx had snickered evilly, really hating that she couldn't do anything but listen then to whom she assumed was a buffoon or risk losing her tin monkey if she didn't, "What are you talking about? What exactly is it that you want from me, little man?"

"I want your help." Augus had admitted, his face remaining quite serious all the while, "I need your know how, your charm, your street smarts, your firepower."

"What for?"

"To make me a hero. To make us both heroes." Augus had explained, raising his voice over Jinx's resulting mad mirth where she fell amid her weapons onto the ground and rolled about while holding her sides, "To help us reach a higher purpose in life than just sitting around blowing up stuff, causing panic, lying to ourselves about what we can't truly achieve if we just put our skills to it – Oh, quit being immature or Mr. Mojo here takes a one way ticket to sudden sky diving!"

"Go ahead. Drop him, party crasher." Jinx had snarled back, suddenly having all of her weapons back on Augus, "You drop him and I'll drop you in an instant!"

"Heh, look at you being so uncomfortable. What makes you so concerned over this little toy?" Augus had laughed, actually very humored by Jinx's threat against him, "What spiritual, emotional, physical link does this object have to you that makes you so obedient, so sensible, so good all of a sudden?"

There had been no answer to that inquiry on that day. Even to tonight on October 19th where she was getting close to where she could finally stop leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Jinx hadn't answered it yet. Although many had requested she share it with them, only she knew the reason why she was so obsessed over Mojo. Only she wanted to understand… or did she really?

Did she want to know Mojo's uniqueness alone anymore or was she lying to herself once again? Did she want to maybe tell Augus about it before she said her final upcoming goodbye to him? Maybe she did… maybe she didn't.

Getting back to the first time they had met each other, Augus had decided to move on from talking about Mojo and onto his reason for why he had approached the Loose Cannon in the first place, "Either way, whether you tell me or not your connection with Mojo here, Jinx, I need your help in making my dream, my higher purpose, a reality. Believe me when I say you'll benefit too. Whether or not you like it, you'll end up discovering like I did long ago that there are different ways to release your anger, your impatience, your insanity upon this world-"

"Quit talking in circles and just state what you want from me!" Jinx had snapped, sick of being lectured about what would be best for her when she knew – or thought she had known then – what she had been doing, "Then give me back my Mojo!"

"Um, give up the one thing that's keeping you in line? No. No, from here on out, until I say otherwise, until we've done what needs doing to Piltover, I'll be holding onto your, heh, Mojo." Augus had stated firmly, tightening his hold on the tin monkey, "And as for what I want you to do, Jinx, I want you to keep being this sensible. I want you to be my ally, not a foe. In time, you will understand. For now though, we will just have to work with what we have, won't we?"

Then, taking a purposeful step towards the rooftop's edge with Mojo in his grasp, Augus had announced one last thing before slowly falling out of sight to vanish to a place unknown, "When the clocks read 7:00pm, Loose Cannon, meet me at the Cobalt Square in the southern parts of the city. Don't waste your energy or ammunition on blowing up anything else in the meantime, either. You'll need all of your weapons and yourself as prepared as possible for what we will be doing which should prove to be most… entertaining as well as be a fine start to our blooming partnership."

"I'm no hero! To be such a thing is too difficult! You're wasting your time with this partnership crap!"

"Nah, I'm wasting nothing. You're the one wasting away by doing pointless bombing runs when you can be achieving so much more." Augus had laughed back, "Hah, you'll come to like being a hero's – my – confidant, Loose Cannon… for Mojo's little sake, you will."

And so, on that day those few months back, even if she had thought then that she wouldn't ever come to appreciate being he who would come to be called the Enduring Protector's confidant, even when she could have given up on precious Mojo to truly be the Loose Cannon again, something had seized all of Jinx and forced her to meet with Augus in Cobalt Square at 7:00pm. There, both she as well as he had interrupted a drug trade, pulverized everyone involved into near oblivion, then left the criminals roped up for the police to collect.

And although they had been brutalized by melee combat, although Jinx insisted she finish them off for the fun of it then, none of the villains or anyone had been killed; not when Augus had stated they would learn a better lesson serving their years in prison rather than having a quick death. Yet, up to this chilly October night where she was jumping here or there over the now content slums, Jinx knew from the start that the interruption of the illegal exchange at Cobalt Square wasn't at all where Augus had intended to stop his acts of vigilante justice.

No, during those days, there had been plenty more to do, to tear down, to liberate, and to have some fun with in the City of Progress. The slums had needed rescuing… and, wow, had it been quite the adventure rescuing them.

With continued help from Jinx during the days up to tonight, the victory at Cobalt Square proved to have been the signs of the start to a mighty avalanche that would not only take the slums of Piltover but the entire city by storm. And in the beginning, through everything – through the blowing up of heists, intimidating thugs, putting down organized crime leaders, freeing the unfortunate from the abusive, liberating the poor south from tyrants – the Loose Cannon had not followed the Enduring Protector into every fray because she had been jinxed by her heartstrings but because it really had been, deep down, **FUN**.

Against the many targets or during the tasks Augus had ever named off to her before everything had become so peaceful nowadays, Jinx had been mostly free to do as she pleased. For Mojo's sake, just so long as she really didn't kill on purpose, she'd been allowed – even encouraged – to tease, toy, humiliate, along with capture her prey. Of course, it was quite boring that she hadn't been allowed to be as free as she would've liked on her missions. Nevertheless, it became plain with the passing of time that the Enduring Protector wasn't as merciful nor simple nor gentle as she'd guessed. He had his own firm reasons, his bad boy motives, for not wanting to kill the bad guys.

Back in Cobalt Square, when the traders had been just about to be ripped apart by Pow-Pow, Augus had not stated for Jinx to stand down because he was showing mercy to them. He hadn't told her to back off because he believed that there was justice in letting them live on. No, he had insisted that the criminals live… so that they could be confined, trapped, limited, be bullied by the authorities as they had bullied the people of the slums for too long. In short, soon enough, the drug traders in question would be getting a taste of their own medicine.

In that belief, standing bold in Cobalt Square, that was why the Enduring Protector had stopped the Loose Cannon then and had always stopped her from killing convicts whenever possible during their partnership. He wanted the bad guys to live, to suffer at the hands of the law. Not because it was somewhat the right thing to do but because it showed all supposedly smart rule breakers just how mortal he or she really was; that no one was or could truly be above others.

Augus believed in justice, yes, but he also believed it had to be delivered correctly, swiftly, psychologically even, in his own harsh way which had not only resulted in thugs fearing him today but it had also worked its way into Jinx's own thinking. Indeed, no longer was she so eager in destroying things, in firing out in public, in being chaos itself when around him. Through the Enduring Protector, she understood his unique way of fighting, of investigating, of believing, of even being friendly to the weak as well as being ferocious against those who took advantage of those same weak.

During their partnership, even though she was still arguing with herself over it, Jinx had gone on to eventually… wake up, find a lost part of herself in a sense, where she was still something of an outlaw but also a good girl too. Yet, that couldn't be.

Jinx wasn't the one who should have been jinxed into being a hero! She wasn't the one to be trapped in place for too long, to have somebody controlling her, to be responsible for something, to be told what to do or think about things!... Right?

In this world, the section that was in between the white and black – that hazy _gray_ section – was something most souls never could say they'd ever seen through.

Such as this: if someone actually had the opportunity to shoot a long hated public villain, a murderer, a kidnapper, would they really do it? Or would they forever be stuck between what was right and what was wrong? Would they really be willing to stoop to the level of killer, destroyer, yet crusader to achieve something like feeling better about themselves? Like getting rid of all organized crime?

To know right from wrong, good from bad, light from dark, justice from revenge, just to know your way through the gray area between that bright white and vast black, wasn't an easily understood thing in the slightest. It was within that grayish place that many a soul found confident him or herself no longer so confident but lost. Sometimes, they even were more than lost; they ended up dead.

Whether or not he honestly knew what he had been doing the entire time until this night on October 19th where the slums had been fully won from crime, where the people were not scared by the idea of coming outside, where he was secretly celebrated by the citizens of Piltover's south while kept hidden away from the searching police, Augus – to the best if not moral of his abilities – really had done what needed doing; both the bright as well as ugly business.

Therefore, where others hadn't dared, where the law had discouraged such ideas, even though there was much unintended blood on his hands, Augus Cousitar – the Enduring Protector – had done plenty of good for Piltover since his coming. And as he had wanted from her those few months ago upon that rooftop above Emblem Street, formerly resistant Jinx had given him her support, her wit, her charm, as well as her firepower occasionally in exchange for Mojo someday.

Thus, with the City of Progress finally settled down, with Augus praised both by the south as well as northern parts of the community as something of a hero, the time had come for the Loose Cannon to be loose once more, hadn't it? It was about time she was given back her prized possession and be allowed to do what she pleased before Mr. Higher Purpose came along, wasn't it?

No longer was Jinx going to be jinxed. No longer was Mojo going to be kept away from her. No longer was Augus going to restrain her in one place, especially this place that was now so very lacking in anything to do. Of course, everything that had been done beforehand, everything that had involved the overthrowing of the organized crime of these slums, had been very fun. And for all of that fun, Jinx might even thank Augus before leaving him behind.

Yet, as she finally got around to rapidly descending from the roofs of the buildings via sliding down a collection of ladders, Jinx was only lying to herself some more about leaving Piltover because it was so very boring. Truly, she just couldn't stop this particular brand of lying to save her own double sided life, could she? UGH!

Deep, deep, deep down in her rushing heartbeats, even if she was trying to ignore the signs, she was shockingly hoping for something to occur tonight that would... keep her under Augus's control, keep her at his side, keep her trying to get Mojo back from him.

Yes, much like how he had shown up out of thin air as well as taken her tin monkey from her back in the day, Jinx was secretly yearning that the Enduring Protector would be as equally crafty with her tonight. And did she want him to keep her under his control because she saw it some kind of fun she'd never experienced before? Or did she want him to do so because she had somehow become reliant on him during their time together filled with memories of fighting thugs, investigating places, and even… bonding meanwhile?

There were so many questions that raced through the Loose Cannon's troubled mind as she finished climbing down the ladders onto the firm ground that was the alleyway off of "Evening Road". So, so, so many of them! Too many!

Since she had begun to work with the Enduring Protector, as one half of her had wanted and still wanted to stubbornly resist him, the other half of her had unknowingly started to open up, to awaken, to be jinxed by him. On the battlefield, he had proven time and time again to be quite the promising if not strong fighter that could not only keep up with her but even outmatch her. Nevertheless, it hadn't been during the fighting against brutes, the searching for baddies to bring down, nor any of the mayhem that the Loose Cannon had suddenly found herself feeling differently about how her world worked.

No, it had been during the earlier days she'd watched from a distance while Augus came to be eventually accepted by the slums, that the people here gradually came to praise him, that he valued everyone who honored him, that she abruptly found herself thinking of what it could indeed be like to settle down, to wash the dishes, to pay bills, to have a family, to be… like everyone else?

Yet, to be normal wasn't something Jinx had ever thought of nor could it possibly be done. Even if there was a growing part of her that maybe wanted that on this October night – that wanted Augus to continue bringing it out of her – she couldn't turn back on this certain psycho lifestyle she'd decided upon. She had been involved with it for far too long.

Jinx hadn't started this whole chaotic campaign of destruction against the world to just stop now, had she? She jinxed others, not the other way around. Rules were made to be broken. Being normal had never benefitted anyone, especially her.

Regardless of her stubborn beliefs though, while the days had passed and the popularity about the Enduring Protector's feats had bolstered, Augus never changed. He remained fierce on the battleground against his foes as well as gentle/all-knowing off of it with his friends; even to Jinx.

And his gentle words towards the Loose Cannon, him having always considered her a kind of friend from the very moment he'd approached her, had definitely fallen about deaf ears in the earlier days… but tonight, for the last week or so also, those same deaf ears had become keener to hear his friendship, to catch every word he spoke, to notice the occasional joke he'd throw around every so often. In order to maybe find what she was seriously looking for in him, not only did she try to catch everything he had to say to her these days, she paid attention to his everything. She took delight in seeing his every move, in being in his presence, in being included on things.

So, was it that easy for Jinx to say goodbye to what seemed to be the rarest of opportunities to, as Fishbones had quoted numerous times, "Settle down, wash the dishes, and pay the bills"? Not only that but if she really wanted to go on being the Loose Cannon, did she have the motives, the reasons, the spark to go on doing it while knowing the Augus perhaps now expected better of her?

Ugh, why did all of her thoughts keep coming back to him?! Not only that, why did it work her up this much?! The Enduring Protector may have been a respectable role model, the kind of guy that she'd needed for the longest time. However, he was a hero, right? And she… well, she was his opposite. She had always been and was a Loose Cannon; an obstacle.

While she made her way along through the alleys, why could Jinx not just come up with an answer that would put her aching mind at ease?! Why couldn't she just face the truth of the matter and accept the fact that she'd been possibly changed for the better, that she no longer had the energy to go on being a supposed terrorist psychopath, that she wanted Augus to include her into the balanced world he was now enjoying?! That she wanted him to – to – to – AGH!

Thanks to the Enduring protector, the Loose Cannon was obviously no longer and wouldn't ever be as loose as she had formerly been. When she was actually where she knew she would find him – when she stood outside of the comfy little if not merry inn entitled "The Elusive Pike", gazing up at an illuminated window on the second floor – she couldn't decide whether to curse or thank Augus for that.

Maybe she would do both by the end of tonight? Maybe things – the most tedious of things – would finally come out into the open also? And maybe, just maybe, things would work out between a hero as well as terrorist? Well, here was most definitely to hoping.

One way or the other, smiling a small smile to herself, hoping Augus's own feelings towards her would be the same during the difficult moment to come, Jinx crossed the dark street with a running start. In turn, no one just outside of the Cunning Pike's front entrance noticed her expertly scale the nearby structure, leap to the inn's surrounding wall of stone, slink to the tavern's eastern side, then unlock a certain one of the many rooms' glass windows' latches to steal inside where Augus Cousitar had been sheltered by the good innkeeper for the past few months.

* * *

During their career to win back the slums, when they had stopped the Cunning Pike's storages of numerous items from being the constant target of thieves through a cunning usage of wit, intimidation, along with Jinx's hectic traps, the reward was that Augus had been given a free room at the inn close to the docks.

So, while the Loose Cannon had remained in her own secretive hideout as well as kept it as secret as possible during her days as his partner, the majority of her having ever met up with the Enduring Protector had been in his comfy inn room; the very room she was now entering into through the window to leave the night's darkness and chill behind her.

Due to the fact that the oil lights were indeed ablaze in his organized den, it was a bit surprising for Jinx to find that Augus was nowhere to be found.

Like she had usually found him doing whenever dropping by in the past, he wasn't reading any of the prearranged collections of books stocked in the many shelves all around. It was a rather fortunate thing he wasn't asleep on his goose feather filled, heavily animal skin blanketed bed either or the Loose Cannon might have been tempted to… do a naughty thing or two to him before he even realized what was happening.

And as for him being at his elm desk writing out something, reading a parcel, going over information he'd gathered about the City of Progress since he'd arrived, he wasn't there either. No, instead, there actually happened to be, um, Mojo?

Yes, to her utmost shock of all shocks while she excitedly handled it, Jinx's prized tin monkey – the one item Augus had gone out of his way to always keep out of her sight or mind since he'd borrowed it – was set out on the desk. Yet why was that? The Enduring Protector had always kept the little crank up monkey on his person or elsewhere of which he would never breathe. So why was Mojo suddenly just out in the open like this? Was this some kind of trick? A test?

Nervously, knowing how very random the Enduring Protector could be himself, Jinx carefully looked around at her surroundings. With her crimson eyes narrowed, her heart rapidly beating in her chest, she closely glanced at the corners, the floor, the walls, and especially the ceiling. All the while, at every second that ticked by on the yordle made clock nearby, she half expected Augus to appear from behind her, grab her around her small waist, spin her around like it was some game and then throw her onto the bed to – wait… wait a moment.

If the tin monkey was now in her possession, why was the Loose Cannon standing around like some empty headed cat burglar caught in action? This was her chance, her moment of truth, to depart and never look back at all that had happened to bring her to this! Yes, the Loose Cannon could finally be loose again! No matter how nippy it was outside, no matter how comfortable this room was, with the opening of the nearby window she'd gained entry with, she could vanish into the nighttime's darkness in the next blink of an eye!

Nevertheless, even though the urge to flee Augus's room had been very strong, it couldn't overpower the abrupt feeling of surprise Jinx experienced when she next noticed a piece of parchment that had been held under Mojo's weight; a detailed black/white sketch of herself walking along, complete with holding Fishbones and Pow-Pow, spinning one of her longer than long braids along with a wide smile across her face.

Beneath the picture though – the well done if not realistic sketch that Jinx knew Augus had done himself at some point in time for he was indeed a notable artist – was a small note neatly written out underneath it. And it was what that message said that made the Loose Cannon give up on ever being loose, that made her gut flip over itself, that made her just flop on the comfortable bed as well as numbly await the return of the Enduring Protector so she could have a most serious discussion with him.

"_Mojo has missed you, Jinx. It's about time he was given back to you, isn't it? Forgive me for my insistence for having held onto him for so very long but I hope you understand by now that it was necessary… and through him, we have both changed not only things around this city but also things about ourselves. To this moment onward, I hope we have sighted our true motives in living, in fighting, in having fun with whatever comes our way. Without you, Loose Cannon, I could not have become the Enduring Protector I have always needed to be. But of course, you already knew that without it needing to be said. So as you take Mojo, as you go where you go and do as you feel is appropriate, don't be a stranger anymore. Take this little gift of a portrait from me to you and always know that you have a friend here. A friend who will be most eager to listen to and discuss whatever you have on your mind."_ **– Augus Cousitar, Your Humble and Very Grateful Confidant in Fun**

How very like Augus Cousitar the Enduring Protector. How very like him to first meet Jinx as something of a riddle, work in his mysteriously successful way, and now say his own goodbyes before her own in the same puzzling fashion.

Nonetheless, as she remained laid out upon his bed, as she wrapped her mind around the subtle yet obvious meaning hidden in the neatly wrote out message she'd just read, the Loose Cannon felt she had had gained a newer reason than ever to want to have Augus keep Mojo, to have him keep her under his control, to not depart the City of Progress but continue following him into what could be more fun, entertainment, and even more rule breaking.

Indeed, there was no denying the obvious now. Just how she had jinxed many a man into chasing after her in the past, the Loose Cannon had been somehow jinxed along the way into chasing after the Enduring Protector. Heh, how did the saying go? Opposites always attracted? Or was that really what was happening? Maybe Jinx was jumping to conclusions about the meaning behind Augus's goodbye note? Riddles… that needed answers.

As of now, as insane as it was for her to begin comprehending, the Loose Cannon was getting ready to embrace the fact that she wanted more than just friendship from he who had been holding her leash, he who had been using her, he who had woken up a part of her she had thought as long lost. From what she had gleaned while reading his farewell to her, just by looking at the skill he had put into his sketch – his freehand sketch, mind – of her, it appeared Augus had put some very serious thought… into what needed to be made clear between the two of them before she just up and disappeared.

And as for Jinx disappearing tonight, as for her having found Mojo just sitting on the desk, that had indeed been a test in itself meant for her to see something in herself.

After all they had done together for Piltover, whether it had been fun or not, was the Loose Cannon really willing to leave behind the Enduring Protector? Not only that, was the Enduring Protector really as okay with seeing the Loose Cannon depart as he seemed to say in his message?

No. No, after having argued with herself for what felt like eternity but had only been the recent weeks, Jinx wouldn't be okay departing the City of Progress without saying anything or at least seeing Augus himself one last time. And as for Augus, well, he had said himself in the note that he would like it if she would stop being a stranger. He would always be there to listen to whatever she had to say or discuss from this night onward.

Did that not say something else for him though? Did that not say that he was opening up more than he ever had to the Loose Cannon? That he was taking the first possible step towards becoming more than friends/partners and giving her a chance to follow his example?

"So many questions without answers." Fishbones suddenly chuckled from the floor beside the bed, "Is it really worth all of this headache? You have Mojo. Let's get out of here."

"Shut up, Fishbones." Jinx grumbled back, taking to looking at the golden illuminated ceiling while twiddling her fingers together over her fast paced heart, "I've made my choice and that choice will get us our answers. When Augus shows up, we're going to talk about some things. Like he always is, good or bad, he'll be more than eager to listen to what I have to say to him."

"So you're going to talk about some things with him… and I'll have to put up with you while you get some more headaches in the meantime – OUCH!"

With a firm kick at the part of herself trying to discourage her from sticking around to find out things from Augus, booting Fishbones across the floor and over onto his other side, Jinx took to looking back up at the ceiling.

How many times had she been in this room without ever imagining what was happening here could actually happen? How was she going to overcome this coming moment? What was she going to say to Augus when he appeared to her? And if they really were going to be done dancing around the tender subject and admit they hadn't been looking at each other as partners or the best of friends for the longest time but more than that… how were they going to make that work? How was a hero as well as psychopath of Piltover going to start a relationship and remain true?

Well, duh. Just like how they had cleaned up the streets of the slums of the City of Progress, this ordeal about a bad girl and good guys would somehow work out. And if tonight was going to be anything like their efforts had been in putting down organized crime in Piltover's south earlier, then Augus would take the lead… and all Jinx had to do was follow his examples until, well, who knew what fun or mayhem came along. If she could stay awake long enough to see that fun come, that was.

From out of nowhere, the Loose Cannon's eyelids felt very heavy. Next instant, as she seemed to very well fall into the warmth of the animal pelt blanket underneath her, her quiet world as well as conflicted conscious had been overwhelmed by sleepy darkness.

* * *

_**End of "What Was, What Is, What Shall Be?"…**_


	3. Coming to Terms for the Next Storm

**C****hapter Three: "Coming to Terms for the Next Storm"**

"_As I was told all of the time while growing up, no one is perfect. To error is human. Yet, to set aside those errors and move on with one's life, to forgive and forget and take joy in the remaining days you have, that is the makings of a powerful spirit. That is the start to a truly blessed turn in a new life."_ **– Lux, the Lady of Luminosity**

* * *

It seemed like she had only just given into abrupt slumber that Jinx was having one of the most enticing dreams she'd had in a long while. Truly, there was only one other dream she'd had in the past that could rival this certain one and that had been of her claiming revenge against everything around her in some unspeakable place with rockets falling from the crimson sky, bullets flying everywhere, and fire engulfing everything. Yet, that had been then, when things seemed clearer. This was now, when things seemed… constantly jinxed.

As for this dream Jinx was presently having during the chilly October night, it wasn't nearly as chaotically fun. Mind, in its own peaceful way, it was still enjoyable to watch. Instead of destroying anything she could get at with Fishbones or Pow-Pow under a bloody red sky though, as she had been before recently falling asleep, she was actually laid out on Augus's bed in the Cunning Pike. And as for the Enduring Protector himself, he had just come in. In turn, he had frozen halfway through the door, hastily looked around for who knew what, as well as shown a somewhat shocked expression at seeing who had claimed his bed ahead of him.

Ha ha, Jinx usually had that effect on people, didn't she? During her days running around Runeterra, she had forever very easily surprised anyone she had wanted to. Yet, no one had ever made her heart playfully skip a beat like Augus did when he acted so astonished at her unexpected arrival. Then he composedly got a hold of himself, quietly closed the door behind him, swept over to his desk for a few moments to actually start up a rather gentle if not lively record track on the music player, and then actually made her heart stop again when he delicately seated himself on the mattress just beside her form.

Judging by the casual Piltovian clothes he wore – a simple tan shirt with long sleeves, blue jean pants, along with the shoes he removed from his feet next – as well as how brushed back his dirty hair seemed to be at the moment, where the Enduring Protector had been before arriving into Jinx's dreams could have been from anywhere. He could have just gotten back from taking a late night stroll or maybe gone down for a moment into the tavern to get something to eat along with drink. In the end, all that really mattered to the Loose Cannon was that he had finally shown up in some way and had, with a content expression, even taken… a gentle hold of her right hand?

At the instant he had touched her skin, something seemed to have alarmed Augus for his bluer than blue eyes narrowed in concern. Wait, had they even… flickered red for the briefest of moments too?

Regardless of his eye color, slightly alarming the Loose Cannon herself next, the Enduring Protector had leaned closer to her until their faces were only a nose length apart. Being this close to him, Jinx could faintly smell just how good he was or tried to make himself for others with both his local along with exotics colognes. Then, when he had softly brushed his free hand over her tattooed side plus her blushing cheeks, Augus had gotten back to his feet, snatched his heavy duty coat off of the hook attached to the back of his room's door and companionably blanketed her with it.

Instead of appearing to be frustrated with her over anything, instead of showing any kind of uncertainty for what was going on, Augus had immediately noticed Jinx's cold touch due to her having been outside for the longest time. Thus, without much hesitation, without looking reluctant, he had gotten something to warm her back up; his very own coat.

Heh, again, leave it to the Enduring Protector to always think of others before himself, eh? Leave it to him to jinx Jinx's already jinxed heartstrings some more, hm? Of course, at the moment, he didn't know that exactly but for better or worse.. well, he'd know soon enough, wouldn't he?

Naturally, most would have been instantly if not downright aggravated to find someone had intruded on their personal space as well as taken their bed from them without concern. Nevertheless, being like the Loose Cannon in his own way by being different than everyone else, by not being boring, while he put his coat over her thin figure, Augus looked very much humored and not at all angered to have found Jinx in his quarters without any kind of warning. He looked very happy to have found her, in fact.

Indeed, Jinx only believed more that Augus was pleased to have discovered her on his bed when he gazed upon her expression for the longest time next. During that long moment, his sapphire eyes spoke many things of wisdom, strength, and maybe even attraction. Then, with a small smile upon his face, he abruptly had Mojo back in his hands. Yet, instead of hiding the tin monkey away again like Jinx somewhat feared he would, he turned it about instead, thoughtfully looked it over, then cranked it up before setting it upon the mattress where it clanked its cymbals together while the record player played its soft music in the background.

As Mojo clanged its arms together with the softest "tap, tap, tapping" sounds, it was then that the Enduring Protector of Piltover seated himself back beside the Loose Cannon, took a hold of one of her blue braids that was closest to him, then actually chuckled, "You know… it's one thing to enter my domain without warning…"

With a start next, as Jinx suddenly began to realize that she hadn't been asleep at all but half so this entire time, that this supposed dream of hers was indeed reality, Augus proceeded to twirl the braid he held while saying, "But to take my bed from me without saying anything? Now you're just being rude, Jinx. And after all that we have been through, after I was just about to give Mojo back to you, why would you be such? Come on."

As quick as she ever had done in her hectic life, the Loose Cannon sat up with a most astonished look upon her usually leering face. Then, firstly, before she could even begin to say anything she wanted – no – needed to say, Augus had cut across her by adjusting his coat to cover her now sitting form. Secondly, while she continued to appear like someone had caught her during a most dreadful deed, he was laughing up a storm at just how nervous she looked rather than being unreadable like she had always been.

"Ha ha ha! Okay, Jinx, okay, calm down." The Enduring Protector reassured the blushing Loose Cannon, releasing her braid in the meantime, "Good thing Pow-Pow and Fishbones are beyond your reach, eh? Otherwise, with the way you're looking like you just saw a ghost, you might have very well blown this tavern sky high when you jumped up like that. Don't worry about having dropped by so abruptly. I'm not going to bite you or anything."

"I might have earlier." Jinx replied at once with a bite of her lower lip, trying to sound like her typical joking self rather than show just how uncertain she was really feeling all of a sudden, "If you hadn't set Mojo back down with me, that is. It's about time you… gave him back."

"And it's about time you came to get him." Augus chuckled, looking past confused Jinx to her clanking monkey toy with great amusement, "You know, he and I were beginning to wonder if you were going to come back for him at all."

After hearing this, the Loose Cannon couldn't keep from showing her bewilderment as the Enduring Protector coolly explained, "Yeah, if I recall correctly, over the course of the past few months that we've had the privilege to work together, you've been constantly following me, invading my space, and plenty more to get as little as a hint as to where your little Mojo might be. Now, as shocking as it's been, your tin monkey here has been sitting on my desk for the last week… and he nor that message of mine has been moved until now."

At this, Augus gestured to both his finely drawn sketch of Jinx plus message along with Mojo before giving the Loose Cannon his most curious expression, "Not until you seem to have finally figured out something, perhaps? And what would that something be?"

Wait, a whole week? That had been how long Mojo had been sitting on that elm desk weighing down that farewell note/sketch? That had been how long… since Augus had last called upon Jinx to help him on a mission, a fight, or a chat? Seriously? Wow, how time flew by then-

"A week, Jinx. That's how long it has taken you to drop by again and finally find Mojo waiting for you to take him?" Augus next wondered, cutting into Jinx's deep thoughts while they remained sitting together on the bed side by side, "When I first put him out, I honestly expected this tin monkey of yours to not be on my desk by the next morning… and then the next… and then the morning after. Yet, here you came for him not only during active night hours but you stuck around afterwards? You even fell asleep on my bed?"

"Heh, well, what can I say?" Jinx cutely giggled, preparing herself to maybe start explaining things that needed explaining, "I got a bit tired after my glorious reunion with Mojo… So, seeing as how very far away my own house was, with it being so cold outside, I figured you – being oh so gentlemanly and all – wouldn't mind if I stuck around a bit for some shuteye. Was I wrong?"

As Augus laughed aloud at this, as he actually squeezed her hand for a moment, it made the Loose Cannon's heart seem to soar. By Fishbones and Pow-Pow, when had she come to adore his laughter so much? When had a lot of things happened to make her feel so unsure of herself around him, of what was to come between them?

Once in control of himself again, Augus acknowledged while taking a hold of both of nervous Jinx's hands this time, "Well, brr, if the chill in your skin means anything… it really is turning autumn outside, isn't it? And knowing you, you were out there dressed in practically nothing again, right? Just those revealing stockings, boots, vest-"

"Don't go staring too long." The Loose Cannon said to the Enduring Protector, not meaning it in the slightest but wanting him to keep studying her outfit under his coat, "Now that I have Mojo back, all of this you're looking at is going to be gone soon enough… and you might just come to regret that, won't you?"

"Ahem, um, uh, will I?" Augus stammered over himself, nervously averting his blue eyes from Jinx's tantalizing crimson ones, "Well, moving on, if you are going to be gone soon enough, Jinx… then I'm more than happy my bed served a purpose – however short that purpose was – for you. I trust it kept you warm, safe, comfortable?"

Jinx humorously flicked one of her braids into her fellow's uncertain expression as she giggled back, teasing the entire time, "Nah. It was a bit too rigid for me, actually. As for feeling safe, it was a good thing I had Fishbones and Pow-Pow watching over me like always. They're the ones who ease me to sleep, you know. Especially Mojo, now that he's back."

"My bed was a bit too rigid, you say? Well, were you bouncing on it again like you've done dozens of times before now? These poor springs really have seen better days." Augus pondered aloud, patting the mattress in several places before – making her yelp a little – he purposefully shoved her over, "Anyway, how you slept in MY bed without MY permission isn't really MY problem. So, uh, hm, I suppose I could care less about how stiff you think this very good bed was. As for how long it took you to come get Mojo, now that you seem ready to leave… that I DO care about."

Pulling her back up to sit beside him where she felt newly inspired at seeing him quite concerned over the news that had suggested she would be departing, Jinx listened as Augus said to her, "A whole week I've spent wondering if you were ever going to come get Mojo. A whole seven days you've been missing until I began to think I'd have to go out and find you."

Next, the Enduring Protector rose back onto his feet to take a hold of the sketch he'd done of the Loose Cannon. Holding the parchment up for him to closely observe, he admitted as the music went on playing, "Now I understand the reason for your absence. Of course, I've always understood. Since the start of it all, since we started off working together, it's been coming, yes. And now with Piltover secured, with me where I need to be, there is nothing else to keep our partnership together."

The Enduring Protector sat back down with the Loose Cannon. Then, while he handed his sketch of her over to her, Jinx heard him gently say in the wisest voice ever, "For the past week, you've been thinking over things, right? You must now venture… elsewhere, Loose Cannon. You must be loose again, correct?"

How did he do that? How had he always done that? How had Augus read Jinx's mind by seizing Mojo to get her to help him back in the day? How had he predicted, read, as well as defeated every foe that stood in his way in achieving peace for the slums? And now, how had he read her mind again? How did he appear to know everything when he was just as mortal as everyone else? How was it he kept easily making Jinx's heart stop with anticipation and her cheeks heat up?

"Yeah, you do. You need to be free again." Augus sighed, bringing Jinx back to the present and out of her thoughts with what he surprisingly had to say next, "Forgive me for everything, Jinx."

"Forgive… Forgive you?" Jinx breathed, literally not knowing where that had come from for she was not a figure to ever be told such a thing, "Why would you… You're really sorry over everything?"

"Yes, I'm sorry that I had to do what I did to you by keeping Mojo locked up. At the time, I wish I could have just been able to ask you for aid." The Enduring Protector replied, forcing a small smile onto his face while his eyes showed his actual regret, "Still, you're not nor ever have been nor ever will be a girl to be forced to stay in one place by anyone or be told what to do by another. Thus, no matter how much I may have wished for it to be during these past months, our agreement has come to an end as has our time together. For the past week that I have left Mojo out on the desk, I have come to comprehend that better than ever. It's time I stopped being unfair."

When he seemed to have finished saying what he needed to say there, the humble Enduring Protector went on to add to the confused Loose Cannon while they looked over his detailed sketch of her, "Nevertheless, even though this certain arrangement between us – this arrangement that began rough but has proven to have been quite fun – has come to an end, take this message with you. And may it always remind you of what you should really be doing with your talents, your wit, your strength. May it show you that you have a better purpose in blowing up something worthwhile rather than just buildings for a, well, hardy-har, laugh."

"May it show me," Jinx jokingly cut in, throwing another one of her braids into Augus's serious face in the meantime, "that I'll always have a friend her in Piltover, right? And after you've held Mojo hostage for the longest time, is that what you think of us? As friends?"

"Yes. Yes, I do. As do you." The Enduring Protector immediately stated, defending himself from the Loose Cannon as she repeatedly yet playfully tried to hit him in the face with her braids, "For if we were not friends, duh, we would not have even made it to tonight. You would have disposed of me long ago, you would have gone on blowing up Piltover, you would have not listened to me back in the day and found a better way in releasing your fury against this world by taking the fight to the idiots who think themselves higher than others."

Augus next took Jinx by the shoulders as he coolly chuckled, being a bit of a bad boy for the bad girl for the shortest of moment, "You should know, Jinx, in some instances, on some things, I kind of agree with you."

"You do? Ha ha, seriously?"

"We really are more alike than we both forethought." Augus chuckled back, rubbing his face while looking a bit concerned yet humored, "There are rules that are made to be broken… as are people; the cruelest of people who make people like you and me lose our way, become blind, go around making mistakes, then have to go through all of the work of having to wake up again."

Then, when back on his feet, the Enduring Protector said for the Loose Cannon, "And speaking of which, as we split up, you and I are finally awake. As this city owes us much, we owe each other just as much. For having helped me achieve my higher purpose, I owe you more than plenty. Thus, if you would allow it, despite my actions against you, I would be more than willing to be your friend in the coming days, Jinx."

All of this sudden talk about honor, this chivalry, this being enlightened stuff, wasn't something the Loose Cannon usually appreciated hearing. More importantly, she didn't care to hear or know that she had and was still involved with it since she'd met Augus.

In her book, there had never been any reason for Jinx to heed such crap as waking up. All there had ever been for her to fret over was if things were or weren't going to be fun for her as she went about Runeterra with Fishbones, Pow-Pow, as well as her other weapons. Yet now… now the Loose Cannon was more than happy to know she was friends with the Enduring Protector, that he considered them awake, that he understood her on some values.

Even though some knew him quite well as a hero of the City of Progress, while others saw him as a mere vigilante, even though she knew very little of him after having been with for the last months, Jinx increasingly felt that she was getting to bond with Augus better than anyone else. And because of that, she was becoming only more _jinxed_ by him. Because of that, she was not ready when he approached the window next as well as said while opening it, "So, Mojo has been returned to you, Jinx. Piltover's slums have been rid of pests. If it's appropriate, you and I are friends for forevermore… I am no longer placing myself in your way. It's time for the Loose Cannon to be loose again. Go where you will."

Next, standing back from the opened window, he admitted with a forced smile where his eyes seemed to sadden, "This is it. For a long time, this will be goodbye, Jinx."

This really was it then. As she tentatively glanced down at the sketch of herself in her hands, as she was getting up from the bed, Jinx knew this was the moment where things were going to prove to be most difficult for her; the moment where she had to decide to leave in silence or reveal something she still feared might be pointless to chase.

Nevertheless, while she looked to fetch Fishbones as well as Pow-Pow off of the floor, it seemed the world outside had made her tough decision for her when a roaring drum of thunder boomed out across the dark, chilly heavens. Next instant, at the blink of an eye from either of them, Augus as well as Jinx witnessed the outside be hidden away behind the curtain of one of the heaviest autumn showers in a long while!

In turn to this odd turn of events, with a small smile towards the grinning Loose Cannon, the Enduring Protector resolutely shut the window back up as he chuckled, "Of course. Just after I feel this is goodbye… It's not good bye, after all. Well, seeing as you've already claimed my bed, Jinx, you may feel free to keep it for tonight while I – OW! OUCH! AUGH!"

Knowing the moment had come for her to make a move that might spell out grief or happiness for her, knowing she couldn't just leave in silence or she would regret it forever, Jinx decided to begin to tell/show Augus how she felt about him. And she jokingly began by whipping one of her braids around to snap it at his humored face!

At once, when the braid nearly snapped him in the right eye, the supposed joke turned into an issue for the Enduring Protector who stumbled about, covered his face, along with half whined-half laughed at what had just happened. With his eyes disabled at that moment, he didn't notice the Loose Cannon rapidly shut the window, lock the door, and then jump onto his back lastly!

"By the gods, Jinx," Augus couldn't help but roar out in both shock along with humor, just barely keeping from stumbling into the nearest wall while blinking away the tears in his watering eyes, "are you kidding me?! Wait, don't answer that. I need to remember who I'm talking to – WHOA! What was that?!"

"What was what?" Jinx wondered innocently while still riding her half-blinded companion after having whipped him in the rear with her braids, "Oh, wait, you mean the snap of your reigns?"

"Reigns? Oh no, knock it off! I'm not Fishbones! I don't play horseback-"

"Give me a ride to my bed. The one you're giving me." The Loose Cannon interrupted the Enduring Protector, menacingly whipping her braids about again with a leer upon her face, "Give me a ride and I'll give you a reward."

"A reward? Seriously?" Augus questioned impatiently, not really resisting or trying to break free of his newest rider due to him being oh so gentlemanly, "Jinx, knock it off! If someone comes in and sees this – get off of me already or so help me I'll-"

"Oh, you're just like Fishbones, party pooper!" Jinx whined, bouncing to make her ride curse while dropping to a knee on the floor, "There's no reason to be so boring! The door is locked, the window is shut, the thunderstorm is wailing, so it's just us now. And I want a ride to my bed! Now giddy up!"

"JINX! Seriously, this is so ridiculous – OW! OW! OW! WHY?!"

"Let's go!" Jinx laughed while snapping Augus with her braids, getting him back on his feet quite quickly, "Forward, valiant steed! Forward to the dawn!"

"What dawn? It's pouring outside at freaking midnight!" The Enduring Protector exclaimed, turning about to lower his rider onto the soft bed with her twirling her hair around in turn, "There we are! Your bed, mi'lady crazy. Now quit with the – Ugh, really? Now what are you – OH… Oh, whoa, wow."

As he had been putting her down onto his bed, the Loose Cannon had pulled the Enduring Protector down with her. Then, when having him lying against her, with his head in her lap, she went about kneading, rubbing, along with massaging his quite stiff shoulders. In turn, with him looking around a bit surprised, she eased away the tension in his arms, his hands, his fingers, along with neck finally. It was when she was trailing her fingers through his dirty colored hair that Augus rediscovered his suddenly lost voice.

"Um, heh, it seems… that little horse ride," He whispered, his blue eyes looking up into the pale red ones looking over him meanwhile, "was worth it in the end. I'm enjoying the reward."

He was enjoying alright. As was Jinx herself who, with her heart just about ready to explode from having obviously showed her affections without being rejected so far, was happier than she could remember being. Well, there had been that one time in Zaun where those gangs had thought they'd cornered her only to be snared by booby-trapped triggered chomper grenades that turned them all into super crispy – and, yeesh, getting back to the present moment at hand.

"Oh? You're enjoying yourself? Good." Jinx snickered excitedly, a leer coming over her pale expression that made her companion start to cringe a wee bit, "But who says that this is your reward? Who says that it's still not yet to come?"

When Augus was about to ask the meaning behind those words, when a most loud bellow of thunder crashed outside, Jinx finally decided upon what she needed more in her hectic life. With it raining outside after all, instead of follow through being the Loose Cannon for a change, instead of thinking about running away from Piltover, she caved into the half of herself that had awoken. She gave in to her jinxed side by tossing aside her braids, leaning down, then planting her lips against Augus's own.

To say that the Enduring Protector was surprised by the fact that he was kissing – no, being kissed by – the Loose Cannon on that stormy October night was the understatement of the year, maybe his entire life. By the fullest to honest truth, he had no idea what to do, what to say, how to react. So, instead of ruin this surprising instance by maybe fumbling over himself in an attempt to speak, he just… went along with the crazy moment.

While Jinx had her own eyes closed, Augus's were opened as wide as dinner plates. Eventually though, despite the craziness of it all, he too found that he was indeed enjoying the instant and had even been… hoping for something as grand if not as impossible as this to come around since he'd taken Mojo.

Either way, by the time Jinx had pulled back from him, by the time she'd dragged him fully onto the bed with her where they snuggled, Augus wasn't at all surprised nor afraid nor nervous of what was coming to be anymore. Rather, if there was any more to be had, he was very eager to see what more of his "reward" entailed.

"Your reward for having carried me, my funny steed," Jinx giggled, so very satisfied as well as happy to see Augus looking so content with her having control over him, "is that I want to share this bed with you tonight."

"Really? Now you're speaking my language. Now we're understanding each other. I mean, of course this is my bed and you're kind of intruding but-"

"You can join Fishbones and Pow-Pow on the hard floor at any time." The Loose Cannon interjected with a chime, cocking her to one side cutely, "That would be a shame though, wouldn't it? For me to enjoy being warm in this big bed all alone while you're all cold on that hard wooden floor Fishbones and Pow-Pow are always complaining about-"

"Bah ha ha! Where is all of this coming from?" The Enduring Protector cut in, snorting with mirth while the Loose Cannon went on to rub his chest with a grin, "Not that I mind at all what's going on here but has a bit of me rubbed a bit too much onto you, Jinx? You're speaking all noble and considerate and – Please don't. Not again."

"Not again? You don't like it when I snap you with my braids?" Jinx pouted, threatening her companion with a twirling of her hair in the meantime, "That doesn't get you all excited? It doesn't get you all hot under the collar and in the face and… where it matters most?"

"No, not really." Augus instantly responded, tensing a bit when Jinx reached under the collar of his long sleeved shirt to lightly rake her fingernails across his bold chest, "Hngh. But do you really want to know what's getting me all hot and bothered and ready for some fun?"

"Me biting my lower lip?"

After this inquiry, after she bit her lower lip in the most enticing way, there was a pause of silence where both Loose Cannon as well as Enduring Protector stared at each other. Then, Augus admitted, "Yes. That's pretty… How to put it? Um, smexy?"

"Smexy? Bah ha ha ha ha!" Jinx laughed, falling back onto the bed where she held her sides, "T-that's… that's actually really well put. Ha ha, the first time I've ever heard it but good, my funny steed."

"Seriously, do you know what's got me all speechless here, Jinx?" Augus questioned again, abruptly jumping up to pull his blue haired tease into his lap for a change, "It's just how impossible… yet possible all of this happening is. Not mention how very sudden it's come."

"And is that such a terrible thing?" Jinx uncertainly wondered back, flicking her bangs to the side to show her bemused eyes better.

"NO! No, not at all! This is… glorious."

In turn, intertwining their fingers together as they took comfort in each other's presence while the outside world continued to heavily downpour, the champions of Piltover – the Loose cannon as well as Enduring Protector – were now truly bonded. Just as she had hoped only in her most secret of dreams but now fully accepted, Jinx discussed the deepest of things with Augus on the bed in the inn of the Cunning Pike with room illuminated in golden light.

"So, how long have you been wanting to do this, Jinx?" Augus questioned, resting his head on the top of hers where she actually smelled fresh like a spring wind, "How did I never believe this could happen when… when that had been a big part of the reason why I started something between us?"

Heh. Until this point, Augus had been just as afraid of this not happening as Jinx had been? Who would have guessed that he – the young man who had appeared out of nowhere, who had always been confident in what he did, who seemed to know everything and had liberated all of the slums – was afraid of anything? How very cute. Then again, who would have guessed she who was the Loose Cannon, she who had determined long ago that her goal in life would be to jinx others and not be jinxed herself, was now, well, jinxed into following this moment? That she would have ever given in to another's wants rather than her own?

Just a second ago, there had been so many questions. All that had now been answered for the better. Still, how very unpredictable the winds of fate blew. How very unreadable destiny could be. How very crazy all of this romance business was being. Regardless, how very fortunate it was that things between Jinx and Augus, for the City of Progress, had worked out the way they had tonight.

"You mean you took Mojo not because you wanted to keep me from blowing up Piltover?" Jinx wondered, looking quite baffled, "You took him because you had wanted to… flirt? If you had wanted to start something, all you had had to do was name the time and place where we could have had dinner."

"Don't act like you knew what was happening on that day on Emblem Street, Loose Cannon. I had your toy and without it I would have been blown to pieces by your darling Pow-Pow." Augus replied, getting an evil yet joking snicker out of his fellow in turn, "On that day we first met, we were the worst of enemies. Tonight though, somehow at some time leading up to now, we've become… willing to become more than the best of friends, right? We've woken up."

"What exactly does that even mean?" Jinx wondered, putting her face into the nape of her companion's neck, "Why do you always say we've woken up?"

"Because we have. In the beginning those few months ago, we had nothing. Now look at us being open, talking sense, cuddling-"

"Speaking of cuddling," Jinx interjected, making Augus jump a little when she very much if not without warning nipped his vulnerable neck and licked the reddened spot, "now that we're all awake and being open and whatever else you're sure we are… Why not enjoy the moment to its fullest?"

"Again, now you're talking." The Enduring Protector half laughed-half breathed when the Loose Cannon pushed him back onto the bed where she began nipping his neck a bit more, "Ah, still, uh, um, Jinx, I need to – wow – hear one thing from you before you reward me or whatever it is we're going to be doing soon enough."

"You're being such a party pooper. Honestly, you could teach Fishbones a thing or two." Jinx lectured yet joked, placing her chin upon her folded hands so that her red eyes enchanted her fellow's blue ones, "Alright, make it quick… We can't hold off on the fun for forever."

"Agreed." Augus chuckled, preparing himself for what might prove to be a most exciting night due to the girl giving him a most eager look, "A quickie. Like I asked before, how long have you been wanting to do this? When did that certain _something_… click in place?"

"Do you really want to know that? Can it not wait?"

"If you want to have your fun with me… Yes, I really have to know. Just answer me that."

"Fine." Jinx admitted, rolling her crimson eyes before she lightly tugged on Augus's ear, "But… you first."

"Alright, if me saying first will loosen your lips-"

"Your lips weren't already loose?" Jinx exclaimed in mock surprise, going in for a forceful kiss at both her fellow's shock as well as reluctant pleasure, "Perhaps I can remedy that with littler talk and more fun, hm? Come on."

"For me," Augus exclaimed, sternly holding his girl back while knowing what he needed to say for his own respectable sake, "I think it was at first sight… that something else clicked in place. When I first saw you, something just flared up. It was small then, a small whisk. It's inescapable now."

"And as for me," Jinx whispered back, brushing aside her bangs as she sat up to begin forcefully taking off Augus's shirt, ripping it if necessary, "Heh, I really can't say at the moment."

When Augus next gave her a most bemused expression, she giggled, "Sorry, my memory is a bit fuzzy. Maybe if you give me a moment or two to think about it, maybe if you help me _kick start_ it," she thrust herself against him, making him hiss in both anticipation and pleasure in turn, "then you'll get to know."

"Even with us both awake, you're as hard as ever to speak with." The Enduring Protector chuckled, brushing the Loose Cannon's bangs out her eyes for her this time, "Still, if we're going to have a bit of fun… then why should I deny it any longer? Get ready. I'll help you remember some things."

"Yes, please do." Jinx chimed, very happy to be getting her way after having gone through so many restraints and trials to get to this moment for the last few months, "And, heh, I think we're going to have to try our absolute hardest. It's simply proving to be quite a challenge for me to confirm… when I wanted this to happen."

Yet, even as they drew together, even as the rained poured its heaviest outside, as the thunder boomed, as the lightning flashed, as Jinx took control of what was going on by nipping, kissing, licking, and Augus really tried his best to even attempt to keep up with her energy, the Loose Cannon knew the entire time when she had woken up, when something had clicked in place inside her, when she had been jinxed by the Enduring Protector.

Just like he had admitted to her, hidden away deep within her at that moment back in the day but so very clear tonight, Jinx had started wanting Augus… at first sight too. And now, no matter their differences, no matter what was to come, they both would have each other.

* * *

It was a little while after the Enduring Protector and Loose Cannon had gotten to be closer than they'd honestly imagined since becoming vigilante partners, after they'd dimmed their inn room's lights, while the rain continued to not pour but weaken into a drizzle outside, that the tiniest, hunched, most cautious form wrapped tightly in a grimy looking cloak was momentarily illuminated in the nearby alleyway by a random flash of arcing lightning. When the thunder boomed next moment across the shadowy heavens next, the tiny figure seemed to retreat with utmost haste into the nearest junk pile where – with a slight chattering of its cheeky face, a flick of its long fleshy pink tail, along with twitch of its large furry ears – it dived headlong into what it considered safe.

"Skies very angry today, Barry. Yes, yes, yes they are…" It nervously squeaked to itself, its green eyes constantly scanning over its whiskered nose at the surroundings for anything that could mean harm, "Skies very angry. Or, or, or maybe, like _she_ has always said to Barry, they are perhaps sad? And when they are sad, she always gets sad. Yet, the tears, tears, tears of us all… cleanse the soul, wipe away the pain, and rejuvenate all, all, all life, do they not? Yes. Yes, they do."

Finally feeling confident again, the little cloaked traveler revealed itself from the heap of garbage it had been squeakily stuttering within. Then, as it scurried across the pavement/stone towards a most familiar structure – the Cunning Pike – it squeaked to itself again, "Ooh, ooh, ooh, whether the skies are angry or sad, it does not matter to ol' Barry, Barry, Barry. No, no, no it doesn't. All of this freshly falling water, yes, all of it will last him for many, many, many days to come. He will not need to be… scare of possibly dehydrating anymore. Nope, nope, nope."

For the tiny cloaked form who had taken refuge in the trash in the alley, this world, the surface of it anyway… was not a safe place. Oh no, no, no, it was not safe at all for one who preferred the underground sewers that were so very much a sanctuary. Not if one was empty headed, reckless, bold. Yet, as for the little stranger trying to find his way along through the rain towards the Cunning Pike without being detected, he couldn't say he'd ever been any of those things. He'd never been reckless, ignorant, blind. Nah, he had forever been a reluctant, careful, cunning soul that knew to error meant to die. So to keep from making mistakes, he had always had to be cautious, to be alert, to be ready for anything.

As for what the cloaked stranger visiting the down pouring surface world was aiming to do tonight, why he was approaching the now closed Cunning Pike, he was on a fun little mission. A mission he'd been repeating for quite some time in fact, a practice that he'd been doing yet missed for the last number of months; visiting a certain young soul that did not fear him for what he was, that did not laugh at his differences from hers, that did not reject him.

Yes, through the deluge, the tiny cloaked form was going to see she who had first accepted him as the being he was when he first quested throughout the surface world that was Piltover. Undoubtedly, seeing as he had not come to see her in some time, she would be a bit angry with him. Nevertheless, he had many a gift, a tale, a minute to share with her now as well as in the days to come. And hopefully, when this certain visit was all over, when he had explained his reason for having been absent for so long, she would have forgiven him for everything.

As for where this little stranger's best friend was… he remembered her being on the second floor on the east side of the tavern. She'd said she enjoyed being up high. It gave her the opportunity to watch the street below bustle during the day and it also had given her the chance to keep a lookout for him.

So, with more scurrying, with a flexing of his clawed paws, a brushing back of his little whiskers plus ears, the tiny cloaked form followed Jinx's earlier example when he swiftly scaled the stone wall that formed the boundaries around the Cunning Pike, moved along the wall's top until on the tavern's east side, then went to work finding the appropriate room. Finally, he decided he'd found the quarters of his best friend when he saw through the glass what appeared to be little crank up toy monkey sitting on the desk just to the left. In turn, with a twirl, a probing, a click, then push, the window pushed inwards… and he fell inside with a small squeak when thunder cried out its loudest above him!

Tumbling across the floor while the thunder roared outside, keeping his breathing under control, the cloaked form jumped back to his feet to take a quick look around to make sure everything was okay. With the next flash of lightning though, it turned everything wasn't okay. Not when the arc of random lightning illuminated the room with a flash of white… and the squeaking little cloaked stranger found himself before the golden eyes of what appeared to be a most fierce predator; a grayish blue shark type creature with the sharpest maw of them all!

"Makes no sense! Makes no sense!" The stranger to the surface world chattered to himself in a forced whisper, swiftly making distance between himself and the shark thing laid out next to him on the floor, "Shark here? No, not shark! Cannot, cannot, cannot be! There is no such thing as land shark… correct? Yes, correct."

It turned out the shark predator wasn't at all a predator. For an underground dweller of Piltover, it was indeed a scarier than scary thing to behold. Nevertheless, with the next flicker of lightning outside, the cloaked form that had taken to seeking shelter in the shadows witnessed that the shark was actually in fact a kind of weapon? A kind of rocket launcher? And as for that being a rocket launcher, beside it was a most intimidating gatling gun, a stun gun, along with various pieces of… clothing? Yeah, across the ground, there was a shirt, pants, socks, panties, bra – Okay, what was happening here?

"Barry, Barry, Barry… Has made mistake?" The cloaked stranger wondered to himself, twitching his ears along with whiskers under his hood as he looked to the tin monkey toy on the desk, "Where is she then? That little tin monkey… Alice had, had, had one of those, didn't she? Yet, if this is not hers then – AH!"

Being so involved with studying the tin monkey on the desk, flipping the toy around in his tiny paws, the cloaked stranger suddenly took notice he wasn't alone in the odd room when the bed sheets on the nearby bed stirred as a feminine figure adjusted herself to be more comfortable. In turn, at the sudden movement, the visitor to the surface world kept himself perfectly still. Then, when it seemed okay to do so, with the crank up monkey still held firmly in his grasp, he swiftly, quietly, along with carefully approached the bedside to see who exactly he had intruded on. And as for she whom he had barged in on, she turned out to be quite the looker with a dreamily smiling expression as well as the longest blue hair freely flowing over her, ahem, enticing yet naked form.

"You… You may be a pretty one," The whiskered, cloaked little stranger from underground said to she whom he didn't know at the time was Jinx, "but you are not whom I am looking for. Where is Alice, Alice, Alice? She has blonde hair, not blue. She is not nearly as old as you. Nor does she take to sleeping so exposed to the open air – Uh oh!"

Just barely in time did the tiny cloaked form's acute ears catch the sound of the room's doorknob being turned. Next, with a nervous twitch of his whiskers, his feet carried him under the bed just as the door opened!

Through the now open doorway, an almost fully unclothed yet bold male figure – a figure who could snap the hidden little stranger in two – entered. In turn, the newest young man to show himself noticed the opened window, seemed a bit concerned, closed it back up, then took a slight look around while dimly turning on the lights. As for the cloaked intruder under the bed in question, his heart was racing way too fast at the realization that he was now trapped, cornered, maybe doomed.

Nevertheless, as the young man looking over the room got closer than ever, the stranger to the surface world hiding under the bed gave a slight squeak of relief when a voice – obviously the girl on the bed – cutely giggled, "Wow, Augus… Did I blow your mind THAT much earlier? So much that you can't find your way back to bed?"

"Indeed." The young man or Augus chuckled back, suddenly going from looking around to pretending he was a bit touched in the head, "You were just so epic earlier… I think I lost my mind at one point. You blew it away to somewhere over here… or maybe here?… or perhaps right there? Or-"

"Or maybe right here?" Jinx teased, seductively sweeping aside her hair while gesturing to the bed which was a mighty fine invitation for her boy toy to come back to her side.

"Perhaps. It wouldn't hurt to look there would it?" The Enduring Protector gladly replied, dimming the room's lights again, jumping onto the bed and looking around the sheets a bit before pulling the Loose cannon closer to him, "Hm, nope, nothing… But wait, not all is lost. Tonight, I seem to have found something better. You."

"You're too funny a guy." Jinx laughed, snuggling her face into the nape of her lover's neck as they resumed embracing one another under the bed sheets while unaware the entire time that they had a most mysterious guest, "Still, now… you're not only Piltover's funny guy but mine too."

"I'm more than just your funny guy now, Jinx. I'm all yours."

"Heh. And this is where I say that I'm all yours, right?" The Loose Cannon gladly sighed to the Enduring Protector, the both of them taking comfort in each other's presence while in the dark, "Well, it's not just me that's all yours now, you know. Fishbones and Pow-Pow say they're yours too."

"I'm very happy to hear that. And so, they approve us being together like this? They won't have a problem… with me being your new favorite plaything, right?"

"Even if they did, they would know not to SAY anything. Right boys? Ha ha, right."

What on this good earth had the tiny, trembling, cloaked, whiskered, hidden stranger to Piltover gotten himself into? How had he gone from looking for his best friend, Alice, to having intruded on such a tender moment between lovers? Oh, how very embarrassing. And who knew how long it was going to take the happy couple to fall back asleep so he could make his swift, silent getaway! By the gods, ugh!

"Jinx… Does this that's happening between us mean what I think it means?" Augus abruptly yet softly said to Jinx from on the bed, making the squeaky little hidden guest below his mattress start paying attention to his surroundings again, "Are you still going to be gone soon enough or can I count on you being there in the coming days to help me continue to have fun around Piltover?"

"Did you really need to ask that? You're more than capable to answer that yourself, my funny man."

"Heh, yeah I know. Like the fool I am, I just had to ask. Honestly, I feel like this is some kind of dream that I'm going to wake up from at any moment and find that – OW! OUCH! Okay, okay, enough! Ha ha, sheesh."

"Well, you're obviously not asleep. This all that has happened between us has been real, not some dream." The Loose Cannon explained to the Enduring Protector after having just pinched him a few times, "And didn't you say in your farewell message that I should stop being a stranger? That I was allowed to talk to you about anything and you'd be more than willing to listen? And look. Here I am not being a stranger as well as having just talked to you about A LOT."

"Wow, it's good to see that you're taking my advice so very well." Augus laughed, brushing Jinx's bangs aside as he softly kissed her, "Heh, you're no stranger anymore. As for us having talked earlier… well, I hope we have more like that soon."

"Oh, don't worry, lover boy. With how easy this one was, we'll have more conversations like this as often as possible. Just so long as you keep bringing fun our way, complete with mayhem, blowing up stuff, and making thugs go running as fast as they can in the other direction, anyway."

There was a silence for a bit where both the Enduring Protector as well as Loose Cannon held each other close while occasionally kissing, hugging, and enjoying themselves. Below them, their little cloaked guest went on fretting over what to do to see about visiting his best friend if not escaping the room. Then, with a sigh, Augus rested his chin on the top of Jinx's head while he wondered.

"By chance… did you open the window earlier?"

"No." Jinx replied, the little stranger beneath the bed going rigid in turn, "No, I didn't. Was it open?"

"Yeah, it was." Augus said, glancing over at the shut window with a blank expression as his blue eyes sparkled in the dark, "Maybe it was my bad. After you blew me away with your smexy performance earlier, I must have gotten up in a daze, opened the window without really realizing and… half seen that the storm had passed us by before going to use the little boy's room."

"Ah, yeah. I didn't even notice… but it's really quiet now, isn't it? The storm has stopped?"

"Yes. It's stopped. Nevertheless, considering what has happened on this night, I don't think I'll ever forget it." The Enduring Protector stated, pulling his lover closer to him which she was more than happy to allow, "In fact, with every storm that comes along now… I'm always going to think of you. How very convenient."

"And when you say storm," Jinx giggled back, "Do you mean when it rains or do you mean when we're in the middle of a battle or do you mean both of those things?"

"Both, Jinx. Most definitely both. And no matter what storms come our way, be it nature or manmade, you'll always be in my heart… and I'll always bring you back home safe and sound."

"And what if you don't bring me back home, my funny man?" The Loose Cannon playfully wondered, brushing her hair out of her tiring red eyes, "What if it's occasionally me bringing you… back home?"

"Then that would honestly… make my day or night or whatever at the time."

"And if I did bring you back home safe and sound… you would owe me." Jinx yawned, truly on the brink of falling asleep in the warm embrace of her newest lover, "And we both know what I mean when I say you would owe me. You'd owe me some more… smexy… time, ha ha… heh."

Once again, blissfully joyful hugging one another under the animal skin bed sheets, Augus as well as Jinx were lost to the restful darkness of sleep. For the longest time, close to a half hour later, everything was still within the room. Then, as soft if not quiet as the shadow he was trying to be, the smallest cloaked stranger of Piltover from underground began to make his way from under the bed out into the open. All the while, with his whiskers along with ears twitching, with his heart beating way too fast, freezing at eth littlest sounds made, he kept his eyes ever alert for anything that could go wrong.

Finally, after having peeked his hooded head out into the open without anything bad happening to him, he slowly began to make his way towards the window. All the while, everywhere, everything, he precisely kept track of.

Yet, no matter his caution, no matter how quiet he was, after having left so many signs of his presence behind without having the time to cover them up, after he had left the window open and had even taken Mojo under the bed with him, the whiskered stranger to the surface world couldn't outdo the Enduring Protector of Piltover who, not asleep at all, watched the tiny cloaked form appear from the shadows under his bed. And then, with a silent yet mighty grapple, Augus had a hold of the little intruder!

Instantly, when he had seized whatever that was cloaked and had been hiding under his bed while reeking a bit of what smelled like rotten fish, Augus knew he had not appropriately grappled whatever had shown itself from the shadows. Immediately after realizing this, he let loose a yelp of pain as the thing – with a mighty twist, flail, thrash, along with pained squealing squeak of its own – bit down upon his wrist with fierce force!

Whatever the cloaked thing was, it had sharp enough teeth that broke the skin on Augus's wrist to make him begin to bleed profusely! In turn, while Jinx was waking up with a start upon his chest, he threw the thing away towards the room's locked door, flung the blankets off of himself, and seized the Loose Cannon's nearby stun gun! Yet, even as he looked to fire a paralyzing bolt at whatever had bitten him, at whatever had come in through the window, Augus couldn't have prepared himself for when the little form he'd thrown aside threw Mojo at his face!

"Augus!" Jinx exclaimed as her flung tin monkey toy smacked him precisely in the head, making the Enduring Protector stumble back as whatever had bitten him dashed for the window, "What is going on?! What is that thing – Here, give me the gun!"

Regardless of having the stun gun, even as the Enduring Protector along with Loose Cannon got ready to stop whatever was making a break for it, their little intruder had already jumped onto the windowsill, unlocked the locking mechanism, thrown open the window, and was scurrying through the dark streets next within the blink of an eye. Then, while shaken Jinx had quickly begun to check over the bite Augus had suffered from back in the Cunning Pike, the cloaked stranger visiting the surface world had made it to the docks, found the nearest sewage pipe and, with a flick of his pink tail, vanished within.

From inside the pipe though, through the drizzle, came much scared yet determined chattering, "Barry, Barry, Barry is very sorry, Alice… Barry will come to see you soon enough. This won't stop him. He'll come to you and be with you on your birthday. He has many shiny things, many stories, many good times to share with you. Oh yes. Yes, yes, YES!"

* * *

**End of "Coming to Terms for the Next Storm"…**

* * *

**Author's Note: **If you've actually read this far into "Jinxed, Viced, Yet True", I deeply thank you very much. Seriously, I hope this story wasn't too crappy or corny or anything too bad. Instead, it would make my day if you actually thought this was at least a decent romance read. As for writing love stuff, I'm a bit new to that. I'm more the action, friendship, adventure sort of writer. However, with practice in this certain category, I believe I'll get around to illustrating better love/lemon scenes as well as think up hotter romantic dialogue, story plots, along with much more. Anyway, if it wasn't clear enough by now, I'm having fun with this certain tale. If I could get you to fav, follow, even leave me a review, I would be very much in your debt. As for leaving reviews, please, please, please give me criticism - positive, mind - on if I jumped from place to place too much, if my character's conversations were too complicated, or if I just did good altogether. Thanks for listening. Thanks for reading.


	4. Happy Birthday?

**C****hapter Four: "Happy Birth...day?"**

"_Even with help from my friends - the stars - love for anyone anywhere is something not easily discovered. Harder still is it to hold onto. You see, as it can be an enemy to most everything, the passage of time is especially cruel to romance. With the passing of time, where a couple once loved each other... they gradually grow distant, split apart, no longer feel as close as they once did. Nevertheless, there are some individuals in this world who are not so easily torn apart with the comings and goings of time. No, instead, they and their feelings, their bonds, their promises, grow only stronger." _**- Soraka, the Starchild**

* * *

_**Thirty six days/approximately one month since Jinx and Augus confessed their affections for each other and began their rather, ahem, unique relationship...**_

"Jinx, why do you keep asking me the same old question that you've been asking of me for the past hour? For the past week? I mean, heh, why do I even bother in answering if you're not going to listen to me? You're doing fine. You look fine. Augus is going to love all of this."

"Are you sure, Fishbones? Seriously, you can't be joking around with me about this tonight, got it? Do you think our place here looks clean enough? What about the decorations? Do you think Augus will like the balloons, the lights, all of this stuff? Or will he maybe think I went a bit too far? Oh, oh, oh! What about me? Do I look decent, Fishbones? Do you think Augus will like my dress, my cooking, my hair being tied into one ponytail rather than two?"

"Jinx-"

"Ooh, ugh, what about the gift I've gotten for him? Is that really the best I could get him? Augh, I could have gotten him something so much better! I know I could have, urgh!"

"Jinx, he won't-"

"Maybe I should wait until morning to do all of this? Yeah! That sounds good, doesn't it? I mean, seeing as how Augus and I have pretty much brought down one of the most sinister organizations in this boring city tonight and he'll be coming back from mopping up the stranglers in a few minutes, he's going to be too tired to really want to party, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we should just put this on hold until morning. Then I'll be able to surprise him with breakfast and he'll be ever so-"

"JINX!"

"Oh, blah! Fishbones help! Say something you know you'd say to make me feel better! I don't know what to do here! Tell me what to do!"

"Jinx, Jinx, Jinx. It's simple... Stop. Stop everything."

"Stop? Like stop everything planned for tonight until morning comes? No? OH, you meant stop walking, talking? Okay! Stopping now!"

"No, Jinx, look... Just stop panicking and take several deep breaths. You have to remember that the Enduring Protector could care less about what you're worrying over. He's, um, not as picky about things as you're making him out to be. I mean, heck, out of all of the girls in the world, he picked you to be his main if not serious romantic interest. Doesn't that say enough about his cares, his tastes, his thoughts?"

"Gee, thanks, Fishbones. You make Augus sound crazy for having chosen me to date. Thanks for that. Thanks a lot."

"Hey, that's not at all what I meant and you know it, you Loose Cannon you. Well, erm... maybe I did?"

"HAH! Knew it! Wait... why am I proud that I knew you were going to say that?"

"Anyway, I'm just saying what needs to be said and what you need to hear. Whatever you're doing now, whatever you've done for him leading up to tonight, Augus won't be displeased with any of it. Back in October, he jinxed you. And you jinxed him. And tonight, you're both still jinxed."

"We're both still jinxed by each other... Heh, you think so Fishbones?"

"Duh, YES. Don't question yourself like that, Jinx. So no matter what you're so afraid of what is going to transpire tonight... don't be. Nothing bad will come of this. Here, let me tell you what's going to happen exactly and not what you're afraid of. Augus is going to come through that front door there, be blown away by the fact that you even remembered his birthday, and then, when you've given him his birthday present from you well... then he'll likely _thank _you for thinking of him in his own way."

"Mm, he'll thank me, will he? Heh, how will he _thank _me, you think?"

"What am I, Jinx? What did you build me for, eh? Am I your rocket launcher, your psychiatrist, or your freaking dirty imagination?! Could you please confirm that for me?"

"Hah, what if I were to say you were all three?"

"Annnnnnnd, just like how I didn't see you coming earlier to stuff me full of confetti to be blasted everywhere tonight, how did I not see _that _answer coming my way? Well, now I understand why I've always been so emotionally, mentally, physically unstable. It's finally clear to me."

"Oh, Fishbones. Ha ha, everyone is a bit unstable. Even Augus admitted that once during a particularly bad boy mission of his this past month... But Fishbones, you're not just all three of those things, you know."

"I know, I know. I'm also your best friend in the world. Be it to destroy things or just to be talked to, with or without Augus around, I've always and will always be here to help you get out of whatever mess you're in, Jinx."

"Heh, Fishbones, you're the best of my guns. You've always been the best. But, sssssssh, don't tell the other guns, okay? Now, as for how I look... do you really think Augus will be blown away? I have to say that I thought this dress looked cute before I snatched it from the northern city malls but now... now I believe I'm having second thoughts."

"Jinx, as a certain other would say; you look truly, truly, truly, absolutely, splendidly, fabulously, OUTRAGEOUSLY good! Quit questioning yourself already. Honestly, when Augus walks in that door and his jaw drops onto the floor, you'll know you made the right choices in how to look tonight. And speaking of your dress, you shouldn't worry about that all that much. I mean, once you give him your gift for his birthday, you'll both be in the bedroom soon enough without _anything _on."

"HAH! Ha ha ha, Fishbones, aw! You really are the best... and you're also my rocket launcher, my psychiatrist, as well as my, heh, dirty imagination. Let's be honest. You're a lot of things."

"As are you... but never did I imagine you trying to be normal like you're doing now."

"Well, duh, that was before I found Augus. Or did it go the other way around? Anyway, that was before I found someone, something, worthwhile. And normal is putting it loosely for me, Fishbones. I - you, me, Pow-Pow, Zap, all of us - aren't _that _normal yet."

"But, hey, who knows! Seeing you as how you're being tonight, you might even be doing dishes, paying bills, and honestly working like everyone else, soon enough - MMF!"

"And we won't be talking about that kind of stuff anymore, rocket face. Shut up. It's only been a month since Augus and me, well, started all of this dating business. It's a bit too soon into the relationship to begin talking about living honest. Not only that but he and I... we're not the types to live normal lives. Not when we're infiltrating private property, blowing up things, and trying to keep from being linked together by the loser cops."

"Hah, you've lost your touch at lying, Jinx!"

"Oh? Have I? And you have the nerve to tell me that, do you?"

"Yep. I do. Also, true, you and the Enduring Protector may have only been officially dating for the last month. You may be vigilantes on the side. Yet, during the months before now, when he had you by a leash, you often thought about what it would be like to live a normal life with him. Nowadays, as you've been being more cooperative than ever with him, you've been especially thinking about it. And therefore, if he wanted to, be it anywhere in Runeterra, you'd be more than willing to try the normal lifestyle with Augus - URF!"

"And just for that little comment, you get to have more confetti stuffed into your mouth, Fishbones. And don't come to me later while whining about a sore jaw. We both know these talks about me trying a normal life are too much work. Right now, I'm still the Loose Cannon. Also right now, we need to focus on Augus's birthday."

"Mmf, hurf, murf, smurf, blurgh, hmf, snurf, mmf, mmf, mmf!"

"Augh, you're right! Hold could I have forgotten that? I haven't put on my lipstick yet! I need to go put that on right now! Don't move, Fishbones! I'll be right back!"

"Hack, blah, yuck, confetti, bah! Oh, take your time, Jinx. I'm not going anywhere... Can't really do that when I don't and never have had legs. Hmf."

This time around for the northeastern most City of Progress of Runeterra, Piltover, the weekday in question happened to be a casual, frigid, if not lively Monday. As for the exact date of the current year, with mostly all of the colorful leaves having fallen from the limbs of all of the trees everywhere and given that the weather had become bitterly cold since October 19th, it was currently November 24th.

And what was the time on this Monday or November 24th? Well, considering how dark it presently was outside with stars dotting the heavens, seeing as how the clock tower in Diamond Square had gonged its usual eleven times nearly forty-five minutes ago, it was in fact 11:45pm.

Unlike a near month ago when the leaves everywhere had just begun to turn different shades and the warmth of the previous summer could have still been occasionally felt in the wind, Old Man Winter was most definitely upon the doorstep of all of Runeterra nowadays. Indeed, daytime's hours were now few while nighttime's, ugh, reigned supreme. Where there had been some comfort outside a month back, where lighter clothes had been the fad, there was only discomfort now as well as the need to don as much clothing as possible to not be chilled to the bone when taking a single step outside one's home.

Truly, these days, be they a denizen of Demacia, Noxus, Bandle City, so on, everyone in the world was being forced to reluctantly accept as well as prepare for that most inconvenient snowy season called winter. Therefore, for the last number of weeks, until the arrival of the next anticipated spring months away, farmers had gotten around to putting up their gear, sailors had anchored at whatever dock, traders had grown roots in the specific city they were currently in, families had bundled themselves up, and armies everywhere had braced themselves as best as they could for the first of many snowfalls to come.

Yet, out of everyone, everything, getting ready for what trouble winter would be bringing, again, there was no better place in Runeterra that felt more ready for the changing of seasons than the City of Progress itself.

Indeed, with their insulated housing, their gas heating, their roads that could be cleared at a moment's notice by hextech machinery, not even the hardy, wintry born folk of Freljord could say that they could handle the coming of snow nor the drastic drop in temperature better than the advanced citizens of Piltover. And because of this truth, because of their advanced tech along with modernizations of today, not only did every Piltovian feel that they would have an easy/relaxed lifestyle to enjoy during old man winter's nearing reign.

No, they also knew that thanks to the passing of the last number of months filled with positive change, appearances from Piltover's Finest, and the actions of a certain vigilante plus pig tailed trickster on the side, they were and would continue to be protected by the best of the city's protectors in the chilly days to come.

Nearly three months back. That had been how long ago Piltover's newest mercenary/champion - the so called Enduring Protector - had shown himself in the southern parts of the city, the slums, and had claimed it as his own territory. And whether the police had or hadn't wanted his aid since his appearance then, he'd gone on to root out, capture, along with help everyone in making the City Progress the much better place it was tonight.

In all seriousness, as it had come to be known, the north of Piltover belonged to its sheriff and enforcer; respectable Caitlyn and Vi. The south of the city then belonged to the vigilante/the Enduring Protector. So, as Piltover's Finest had taken to doing their jobs in the northern parts of town for the past months, its Enduring Protector had expertly not to mention miraculously cleared out the southern districts all on his own.

Well, wait, no. Obviously but not so obviously, the mercenary hadn't done all of that work by his lonesome, had he? Nah, he'd had a certain, hectic, adorable Loose Cannon secretly helping/dating him along the way, hadn't he?

And what on Runeterra would Piltovians have thought if they ever came to know that their Enduring Protector hadn't done everything for the City of Progress by his lonesome? How would his fans of today react if they learned he was currently and had been in a romantic relationship with the infamous Loose Cannon whom had been his support, his ally, his friend if not lover since the start of their purging of the slums?

Well, despite their positive relationship during their entire time as partners against crime, despite their self control in not killing others or blowing up anything unnecessary while working to keep the City of Progress safe for another day, the reaction to learning about the secret partnership/love between the Enduring Protector and the Loose Cannon would surely not be well received by the public.

Oh, sure, there would be true believers amid the scathing hordes that would defend their partnership at the start. Nevertheless, in the end, when important public figures would begin to voice their own complaints, what would there be to defend anymore? Nothing. As the Loose Cannon had become herself due to propaganda as well as the actions of others, the Enduring Protector would be an enemy of the city's peace.

But then again, why worry about something that hadn't happened nor wouldn't happen?

Like its finest on the case, although some important figures - like Vi, the enforcer - would grumpily disagree about his past mercenary actions, the majority of Piltover's populace knew their Enduring Protector as a hero, a champion, a role model nowadays. And with how discreet, secretive, sly, just cunningly subtle both the Enduring Protector as well as Loose Cannon were more than ever, no one was bound to find out about their hero's undercover, forbidden romance on the sidelines... unless, of course, he and jinx wanted to be really bad and announce it during some point in time.

But again, the Enduring Protector was a hero of sorts. Not really a villain. Thus, giving that the Loose Cannon had come to adore him more than anyone else she'd met in her life - yes, she was just that JINXED by him - she only wanted him to be happy. And for him - her Augus Cousitar - to be happy, she was content with staying in the shadows, feeding him info on baddies, not giving the cops any evidence that she nor he were connected in their working or sleeping together.

Honestly, forget the blowing up stuff, running from cops, putting down bad guys.

Just having been and being close to Augus was good enough for Jinx. As for being showered with fame, meh, that wasn't really her style, anyway. Just so long as her lover boy didn't go too far nor got into serious trouble - which he never did - she was and would be as happy for him as the city he protected was and had been.

Speaking of Jinx, aware yet unaware that the northern parts of the City of progress seemed to be in a huge uproar where the entirety of the police force led by Piltover's Finest was surrounding the historical not to mention regal "Mordecai Cathedral's Cemetery" located in the rich part of town, the Loose Cannon was currently fidgeting, rummaging, along with panicking in her own isolate hideout located somewhere in someplace along the most southern parts of the slum's docks on the shores of the Guardian Sea Bay.

Indeed, during this night on November 24th, as many sleepy Piltovians were being roused from their beds by the sounds of the many passing of sirens of police cars or by fellow family members to come look at the emergency city news broadcast being played on the crystal screens/televisions of some affair that was happening at Mordecai Cathedral's graveyard, Jinx wasn't paying it one bit of attention.

Instead, already knowing what the big deal was all about in the northern half of the City of Progress and how it would be ending, the Loose Cannon was trying her best to prepare balloons, food, herself especially, for when Augus - who was presently out doing a most important job - returned from whatever it was he was trying to do during the dead of night; keep Piltover safe for another day.

While she was fussing over her hideout, why was Jinx acting like she was such a tight fix when in the comforts of her own home? Well, you see, as it had been mentioned a time or two during their past month bonding together, November 25th was in fact Augus's birthday.

Yes, duh, right now - for the next fifteen minutes to come before midnight, anyway - today was still the 24th. Nevertheless, by the time it turned the 25th, the Enduring Protector would have helped save the City of Progress another time by putting down a growing disaster consisting of a most sinister cult, keeping the void from being worshipped further, and would have even rescued the sheriff herself from being murdered/sacrificed in the name of the _Voidseekers_; the one of many branches of messengers/worshippers of the eerie mad prophet, Malzahar.

So, when he got done with all of that bad business tonight, what better way would there be for Augus to celebrate tonight than to be given a slice of birthday cake by the one girl he considered the most important thing to him in the world, right? Well, that's how Jinx thought of it, anyway. She hoped she was... the most important thing to him in the world.

As for this Voidseeker cult, sheesh, although much of the crime world had been put on the run if not put behind bars already during the months of the slums being cleaned up, the Voidseekers of Malzahar had been recently working Piltover's security plus champions overtime for the last month. Indeed, three times, in no order, in no particular place, with a random victim each, the cult of void worshippers had been abducting, kidnapping, scaring, along with sacrificing citizens.

All the while this particular terrorism had occurred, Malzahar - whom resided at the supposedly secure Institute of War which was host to the League of Legends- could not have been reached for comment. Nonetheless, it was reassured by sources that he was being severely limited, watched, lectured by his summoner superiors all the same.

Well, with citizens having died in the last few weeks... it was obvious that the Mad Prophet of the Void could be watched over. But not his wicked influence. No, sir. That had had to be confronted or be allowed to poison Piltover further.

Either way, due to Malzahar's commands or not, for the last number of weeks, with people getting scared and even with the city's sheriff at risk now, Augus as well as Jinx had been searching, working, fighting, bonding more than they ever had to put villains in their place. And during it all, the Loose Cannon had noticed the Enduring Protector losing a bit of control over his usually collected self.

Against the Voidseekers, Augus had indeed grown tired, frustrated, even fierce at points during his work. That was before he had learned through an interrogated lower cultist leader several days ago that Caitlyn was to be the next sacrifice at midnight on the 24th when the moon was at its fullest.

It had been at that moment after the interrogation that Augus had grown confident in himself as well as Jinx's efforts once more. He was especially so when he and the Loose Cannon next learned from their Voidseeker prisoners that the sheriff was to be kidnapped and brought to the next random, sacrificial spot - Mordecai Cathedral's Cemetery - no less than on the very night of the full moon.

On that revealed night of the next full moon, Caitlyn would be ambushed in some way, be placed within some sort of confinement, as well as be served directly up to the very leaders of the cult itself. Being the sheriff of the City of Progress, after all, she deserved the attention of the void's best during the full moon, did she not? She deserved to be offered to the empty realm by Malzahar's most loyal, correct? Wrong.

Whether or not it was the right or wrong thing to be done by the leaders of the Voidseekers, if the sheriff was actually sacrificed, the city would obviously not mention intentionally be dealt a most lethal blow that would rob them of their security, their hopes, their happiness. Seized by fear, the people of Piltover would once again be confined to staying indoors. Only this time... they would have to have done so knowing they had been robbed of their beloved Caitlyn.

Nevertheless, no matter what their plans had been then in the past, having heard enough during the interrogation, what the Voidseekers hadn't taken into account had been that they'd just ticked off the Enduring Protector who had the Loose Cannon at his side... and the pair of them weren't very keen to have saved the slums to have it fall back into chaos with the loss of Caitlyn.

Nope. After November 24th, there would be no more sacrifices. There would be no more worshippers of Malzahar hiding in the City of Progress. There would very well be no more threats to the peace at all after the Enduring Protector and Loose Cannon had finished off the Voidseekers.

As the night of the full moon had approached, as the moment where Caitlyn would be at risk of abduction tonight had neared, between Augus and Jinx, nothing had been said to the police. Who anywhere, apart for themselves, could be trusted during this crucial time?

Instead, taking subtle shifts, watching out for suspicious persons around her from every angle, the Enduring Protector and Loose Cannon had secretly taken to being Caitlyn's guardian angels, eyes in the sky, guardians, for the last few days. And while she had felt it odd at first that she had been watching over the top hat lady rather than teasing her with an explosion or two, Jinx had kept protecting Caitlyn the entire time. Meanwhile, in his own bad boy fashion while twirling one of her long braids, Augus had constantly kept whispering in her ear that he would find a _proper _way to thank Jinx for having donated her time to the cause of keeping the peace.

At this thought, at remembering him twirling one of her ponytails while trading guard duty over the sheriff while whispering in her ear that he'd find some way to repay her in a husky whisper, Jinx paused a moment in fretting in her hidden hideout to blankly stare at the door that led to her bedroom.

And what exactly had Augus meant by repaying Jinx, hm? Why had he whispered it so very enticingly in her ear every time? Hah, was it not plain enough or did Fishbones need to spell it to for her?

Yet, as the perverted thoughts of her being thanked by the Enduring Protector tonight for all of her past help in putting down the Voidseekers descended upon her mind, as she had begun to imagine being thrown in bed to be held down and violated and all else that the two of them had considered smexy for the last month, Jinx remembered she had more pressing matters at hand that required her full attention. Such as giving Augus more reason to want to thank her by remembering his birthday with a surprise birthday party!

Nevertheless, even as Jinx tried to focus on the present in her secret headquarters, she couldn't help thinking back on the subject of Caitlyn possibly being abducted.

The actual abduction attempt scheduled for tonight on the 24th had actually been during the recent few hours when the cultist kidnappers had ambushed Caitlyn during her usual drive home alone. Smashing as well as boxing her in with their own vehicles, the Voidseekers had outnumbered the sheriff twelve to one... until the Enduring Protector - watched over from the rooftops by the Loose Cannon in case anything had went wrong - had unexpectedly come fighting, smashing, flashing his way into the brawl, anyhow.

Two of Piltover's finest individuals, the respected sheriff and rebel vigilante, versus twelve nervous, uncertain, rookie, mortal Voidseekers taken off guard by the fact that they had been found out by the slum's hero? What good odds.

And who could have possibly won that round? Heh, that had been clarified when the last standing cultist had fled down the street only to be knocked off his feet when Caitlyn had lazily fired as well as hit him from behind with her rifle's heavy duty, chain net round.

From there, with the cultists defeated, with the netted one having admitted everything while barely conscious, as Augus had gone about updating a most surprised Caitlyn on the rest of what was happening at Mordecai Cathedral's Cemetery at the very moment she'd been saved by him from abduction, Jinx had taken her silent leave from the rooftop she'd been observing from. Why?

As the pair of them had cleared between themselves when just beginning to work together in this hero business, there could be no connection between the Loose Cannon or the Enduring Protector. Thus, for the Enduring protector's sake, she couldn't have shown herself tonight or risk exposing all that they'd done for the slums. Still, being as affectionate as she ever was, that hadn't kept Jinx from at least giving Augus "Zap" - her trusty stun gun - earlier to use tonight while he infiltrated the cemetery ahead of Piltover's sheriff who - now updated and with all haste - led the whole police force in surrounding, locking down, along with recapturing city property from the Voidseekers that had sought to bring about her end.

Even when they had just begun working together, Jinx was fully aware that Augus was capable. He was strong, durable, wise, not to mention handsome. Nonetheless, as much as she was, he was still a vigilante, a mercenary, a person who had broken the law on countless accounts.

Therefore, even if he had done what he'd done in the past leading up to now for the betterment of Piltover, even if he had just rescued the sheriff from grave danger, Augus wouldn't be leaving Mordecai Cathedral's Cemetery without the police trying to arrest him tonight.

Yet, pft, as she'd come to learn since meeting him, Jinx didn't worry all too much about her boy toy being all too bothered by pursuit from the police.

Nah, come on. If the men and women in blue couldn't even catch the Loose Cannon, even with the sheriff and enforcer there to aid them, how in this world would they possibly catch he who had cleaned up the slums, who had defeated many a corrupt organization, who had proven to even be, in a sense, the downfall of the hectic ways of Jinx herself; the Enduring Protector?

Heh, the answer to that was simple; the police of Piltover couldn't - wouldn't - catch him tonight. They wouldn't come even close.

And, hey, if they did put him into a cell tonight by some miracle, well, then, like she knew he'd do for her, Jinx would just have to pay him a visit, wouldn't she? A visit followed up by an epic breakout which would end with the two of them vanishing into the horizon to seek some other adventure elsewhere.

Heh, a breakout involving the Loose Cannon and Enduring Protector followed by running off into the sunset together? How very corny... but romantically so. Either way, romantic or whatnot, it would definitely leave the peoples of the City of Progress scratching their heads for the longest time afterwards, wouldn't it? Hah, yeah! No one would have any idea what to make of it! A hero having been broken out by a criminal!

At the very moment on this night, Augus was in the middle of a kind of war zone, true. Nevertheless, there was nothing to worry about. After having done what he'd done to eventually win her supposedly non-winnable heart back in the past, Jinx was aware that he was more than able to look out for himself during even the worst of situations. He couldn't have become nor wouldn't be the Enduring Protector, otherwise.

No, tonight, the Loose Cannon didn't have time to fuss over the possibilities about her lover maybe messing up - which he wouldn't. More than likely, being such a gentleman, he wouldn't go back to the Cunning Pike either when this was all over but he would be coming to see how she herself was holding up. That and to protect his citizen friends helping him these days from being arrested over tonight's events, he would be coming here to Jinx's abode to lay low for a while during the coming days.

And because of that possibility, knowing he would be coming to visit her humble, simple, yet genius hideout situated amid the docks, having planned this surprise birthday party for him for the last week, Jinx had gone completely out of her way to make sure Augus would be at his most comfortable during his stay.

Yet, no matter her efforts to appear to be a proper host, the Loose Cannon just couldn't stop fretting. Not about her love being in danger but on what he would think about what she was presently wearing, how she'd done her hair, what she'd done with her place, what he would think of her birthday gift to him, and just simply, augh, EVERYTHING!

Indeed, with her usually disorganized home now surprisingly organized - or as organized as it could be while still being the cluttered, grimy, secluded kind of abandoned/two room apartment she'd first found it as when just getting to Piltover - it was somewhat clear that Jinx had gone clear out of her way to make Augus's coming birthday party matter all that much more.

Where there had been garbage here or there, it had been efficiently collected, removed, thrown out. The floors, shelves, surfaces that had been yucky if not dusty for the longest time had been as determinedly cleaned as they could be. The kitchen - who's utilities, much like the bathroom's, had been broken when Jinx had first arrived but had been fixed due to her constant tinkering - was polished to have a sleeker appearance. There was the small kitchen table which was appropriately set with eating utensils, food, drinks, plus the chocolate birthday cake Jinx had made herself. Then, the cutest of chairs were available to be sat in. And like the sweet smelling candles, all around on the floor, against the ceiling, just everywhere, there were colorful balloons that hopefully added a bit of cheer to the tense atmosphere.

As for how many candles were in the recently mentioned birthday cake, as for how old Augus would be turning on the 25th... heh, well, Jinx didn't know that quite yet.

Yeah, despite the fact that they'd been dating for the last month, with all of their work in bringing down the Voidseekers, the Enduring Protector as well as the Loose Cannon really hadn't the time to really chat or discuss personal things.

Yet, during tonight, maybe they would be able to change that, hm? Perhaps they'd be able to seriously chat for the first time in a long time, right? Anyway, having been unable to determine his age at the time of having finished baking, Jinx had simply jammed as many candles as she thought correct into her own handmade chocolate cake before putting it down on the table.

Then, having finished in all of the manual kind of labor of cleaning her living quarters up, she had focused on working on making herself look as good as her hideout. And that had progressed with her taking a quick shower while applying what exotic shampoos she could to her skinny self, speedily brushing out her longer than long hair to tie it into a singular braided ponytail rather than two behind her, brushing her teeth, putting on a hint of, blah, make up, then putting on what she considered one of the best dresses she had found in the north/richest malls of Piltover.

Indeed, by the time she had finished getting herself and her apartment prepared to surprise Augus for his birthday, it could've been said that a tornado of the best kind had come as well as gone in Jinx's life. Seriously, as Fishbones had kept saying to her these recent days, like some normal Runeterrian girl suffering from a crush, there the Loose Cannon was on November 24th at nearly midnight all prettied up, dressed in a casually attractive, Demacia styled, summer dress colored green/white/violet that showed off much of her bare arms and legs.

Simply put, plainer than how very cold it was outside, she did indeed look truly, truly, truly, good.

And although she kept biting her lower lip in worry, although she didn't feel everything she had done tonight in her apartment had been to the best of her abilities, Jinx really had done so very much to show just how jinxed she was by Augus. And if she knew him as well as she thought she did, she wouldn't be worrying over anything at the moment. No, she would instead know for sure that he would appreciate her caring efforts in the end when he showed up any minute at the front door now.

But, wait, he couldn't show up! Not yet! Not now while she hadn't applied lipstick to her lips! AUGH!

Yet, even as the Loose Cannon had frantically dropped Fishbones onto the counter to dash off into the bathroom to find the certain lipstick she needed - the lipstick kept in the sleek bullet necklace she usually wore, mind - she experienced her heart jump into her very throat when she heard the opening of the front door and all of her rigged confetti go off in turn!

Then, knowing it was now or never to make his night the best, bolting out into the storm of swirling, glittering paper to grab up Fishbones from where he'd been set, Jinx aimed her rocket launcher at the opened front door to fire off round after round of confetti!

It was now or never, after all. It was be true to herself or let down the one person she cared for most. And if it were not clear enough by now, if it had not been made clear by all that she had done for him during their month together acting as heroes... the Loose Cannon wasn't intent on ever letting down the Enduring Protector. Especially not now.

"Hey, lover boy! Finally, took you long enough! Welcome back!" Jinx laughed out to the figure at the front door, trying not to get too embarrassed or seized up in the moment when she had finally gotten done emptying Fishbones of all of the confetti ammo she'd previously stuffed him with, "Hah, I bet you're wondering what all of this is about, right? Well, happy birthday, Augus! Aren't I the best? Yeah, I was thinking of how we could celebrate having taken down those weirdoes of Malzahar or whoever and - Hey? Augus?!"

When the flurries upon flurries of confetti had finished dancing through the air and had settled upon the floor, when she was finally able to see him leaning against the front door's frame, Jinx immediately stopped everything she was doing. For, you see, with him barely staying on his feet, despite him wearing his usual under layer of armor along with gadgets, her heart had skipped several beats at seeing Augus looking a bit worse for ware.

Indeed, his trademark, mercenary outfit - him having always worn a light, hooded jacket, pants, boots, gloves, all reinforced by patches of lightweight armor underneath it all - was shredded if not a bit bloody in spots. And his breathing, it was... ragged, breathless.

Hm. Despite the reasons not have done so, it seemed there had been reason to fret for Augus Cousitar as he'd taken on the Voidseekers alone tonight, eh? That and him having had to escape the police afterwards had probably made things all that much more difficult, right? Right.

Yet, before Jinx could ask him anything about tonight, even though he looked so worn out, Augus had stubbornly straightened himself up, looked around at the colorful surroundings meant to emphasize his birthday, then put on a bright smile while saying, "Oh, yeah. It's my birthday tonight, isn't it?"

Next, eh checked his right wrist where there was a barely functioning watch. When he noticed it was five minutes to midnight, he chuckled to his stunned lover, "Well, wait, it'll soon enough be, anyway. So, yay... Ha ha, yay for me."

Next, when Jinx had barely managed to catch him in time when he half walked-half stumbled inside, Augus groaned in her grasp, "So... If it's my birthday... where's my cake? That sounds... really good right about... now. Cake and ice cream... would hit the spot."

Then, with a rasp, the Enduring Protector passed out in the shocked Loose Cannon's hold.

There was a silence where Jinx couldn't even begin to sort out her feelings over the matter. She was, in the least, furious that she'd allowed this to happen to he who had come to matter so much to her. No matter the risk, no matter what he had said to her earlier, she should have been there for him during all of tonight! Then again, at least he had come back to her in one piece. True, he was currently hurt. Nonetheless, he was tough. He would live. And if he was going to live, he needed to be tended to, to be washed up, to be allowed some rest.

So, not at all minding that her birthday work might have been all for naught tonight, getting a better hold of her lover to do a rather usual routine, the Loose Cannon began to drag the Enduring Protector towards the bathroom where she could get him undressed, check over his apparent wounds, get him in the tub, clean him up, and then put him in bed.

Nevertheless, while Jinx was looking to take care of her romantic interest, Fishbones put in while she passed him, "Hm, well, that most certainly is not how I _saw _this night going. My bad. Still, does that mean no cake? If we're still going to eat then I call dibs on lover boy's slice!"

"Shut up, Fishbones." Jinx huffed, rolling her crimson eyes while getting the bathroom door open to disappear inside, "Seriously, stuff it before I stuff you. And I'm not talking about stuffing you with cake, mind. Just more confetti. Ladies and gentleman, due to obvious reasons, this party has been put on hold... for now."

* * *

_**End of "Happy Birth...day?"...**_


	5. Safe and Sound

**C****hapter Five: "Safe and Sound"**

"_BZZT, CLANK, WHIR! PROCESSING POSSIBLE COMPATIBILITY FOR FINDING MATCH IN THE WAYS OF LOVE. PLEASE WAIT FOR A MOMENT. LOADING, LOADING, LOADING. WARNING! ERROR, ERROR, ERROR! FINAL CONCLUSION FOR DR. MUNDO: NO CAPABLE MATCHES! HOLD ON, DON'T THROW THAT SUITCASE! NO VIOLENCE NEEDED, GOOD DOCTOR! NO MATCH IS LOGICAL CONCLUSION OF SITUATION OF THIS ROBOT'S OPINION ONLY! HOWEVER, THE WAYS OF LOVE ARE NOT AND HAVE NEVER TENDED TO BE LOGICAL! THUS, YOU MAY VERY WELL HAVE A CHANCE IN WINNING VAYNE'S HEART ON THIS VALENTINE'S DAY! HERE, TAKE THESE FLOWERS, THIS CHOCOLATE, GET A CARD, DRESS YOUR BEST AND ASK HER OUT NOW! MOST OF ALL, BE YOURSELF! ANALYSIS COMPLETED. GOOD LUCK. HAVE A GOOD DAY." _**- Blitzcrank, the Steam Golem**

(Said several hours before a well dressed Dr. Mundo was found in the Institute of War's gardens, face down, with a heart shaped crossbow bolt in his back on Valentine's Day of 22CLE. Although saved afterwards by healers, his flowers, chocolates, and cute card seemed to have been stolen away by a certain, stealthy someone... as was still his fluttering heart. After all, Dr. Mundo LOVES whom he pleases! Don't you judge him!)

* * *

"LOSER FAT-HANDS DID THIS TO YOU?!" Jinx furiously erupted over Augus after having heard him partially explain what had happened at the graveyard while having him sitting at the table while she sewed the cleaned cuts that were upon his back, "SHE DID THIS?!"

"Annnnnd - OW! - you're going to fume about this. Just like I - OUCH! - said you would. That's why I also said - OOH! - that we should wait talking about anything until you've finished sewing me back together. Yeesh, hot stuff, easy with that needle! Easy, easy, EASY! Ah, ah, ah!"

An hour had passed since the moment that the worn out Enduring Protector had stumbled into the arms of the dismayed Loose Cannon. Sixty minutes later, after Jinx had just gotten done undressing him, stripping him of his heroic equipment, washing him up in the tub, stopping his slight bleeding, finding relief in the fact that none of his injuries looked to be as lethal as previously guessed, Augus had groggily awoken.

From that moment of him waking up, with her pulling out the required needle as well as string from the available first aid supplies to begin sewing him into better condition and he himself taking sudden pleasure in the realization that she'd been getting ready to celebrate his birthday, the Enduring Protector had taken a seat in the kitchen while the Loose Cannon stood behind him tending to his injuries. And there in the festively decorated kitchen was where they had been talking about what exactly had occurred tonight before his recently showing up at the door all battered.

As for how much damage Augus had suffered during his lone mission in taking out the Voidseekers as well as avoiding arrest from Piltover's Finest in Mordecai's Cemetery afterwards, that hadn't been as bad as it had looked when he'd shown himself to Jinx. The cuts on his sinewy frame, although several in number, had turned out to be shallow/not as big a deal as most would make it out to be. Therefore, they had been easy enough to clean in the bathroom not to mention be sewn back together at the kitchen table.

Truly, with his upper torso bare for inspection along with nursing at the moment, knowing just how well built he was and how rare a moment like this had been available for her to enjoy seeing him half naked since the Voidseekers had begun to rile up, the Loose Cannon couldn't keep from occasionally brushing her tantalizing fingers along the Enduring Protector's form. This, in turn, with a giggle from his tormentor as well as humored chuckle form himself, made Augus tense if not relax ever so slightly before they went on with what they were doing.

During the last few months, when had been the last time that Jinx and Augus had gotten a moment to themselves like now? When had they been given a well deserved breather? A chance to enjoy one another's presence in undisturbed privacy? Maybe - or so it felt like - forever ago? Well, either way, even if it was during minor surgery, here they were now on November 25th at 1:17am, very much enjoying one another's voices, presences, company amid a variety of many colored party balloons.

Here, in this abandoned sort of apartment, Jinx as well as Augus were safe from the world outside for another time. Here, together for a change, they could be at ease once again.

Indeed, having made it to this safe haven, the Enduring Protector was now happily out of harm's way under the gaze of the Loose Cannon. Thus, to recover from his latest completed venture of tonight, he would undoubtedly be staying with his lover for the night now. Nevertheless, despite the safety of this hidden abode in the docks along Guardian Sea Bay, it was only during the bit where Augus had begun to unwisely mention to Jinx that Piltover's Enforcer had momentarily attacked him during the recent confusion in the graveyard that things became a bit more painfully strenuous for him.

Yet, in the end, he knew had deserved being chewed out by Jinx when he'd reluctantly mentioned that Vi had assaulted him on his way home. After all, considering the past events leading up to now, he was well aware that he wasn't the one who had always had a short temper whenever the enforcer - the enforcer out to get him, mind - was ever mentioned nor was he holding the needle presently sewing his skin back together!

"No, no, Jinx! Yow! Relax!" The Enduring Protector begged of the sewing Loose Cannon when she'd allowed her anger to get the best of her at the recent mention of Piltover's Enforcer, "These _cuts _I'm suffering from were made by blades! They're not bruises made by a certain enforcer's gauntlets! Look good and long! Ease up on the pressure, ease up!"

"Hmf! Cuts, bruises, what does that matter when that giant handed mess of a loser still went after you tonight when all you were trying to do was help her?" Jinx huffed, easing up on her patient like he desperately wanted from her, "That blockhead. And one punch from those things she calls hands and BLAM, you'd be in a bad shape, Augus! Then, pft, even with all that you've done for this city, they would still throw whatever was left of you into a cell at which I'd have to come in and get you out and show Piltover's Finest just who is _really _in charge of things."

"Ha ha, a jailbreak, hm? Duly noted, Jinx. Although, no matter how much she's ever wanted to in fact, Mrs. Bulldozer and her bulldozer hands couldn't ever do this kind of rough stuff to me simply because I'm too fast for her punches. With how predictable she always is, she won't ever land any hits on me." Augus quickly replied while making fun of Vi, tensing a bit as his blue haired nurse determinedly went on mending the remainder of his injuries together, "Good thing she's so readable during combat too. Ungh - Because you're right about one thing, Jinx. If Vi ever hits me with those gauntlets, if I don't vaporize on the - ow - spot, I'll be relying on you to come to my rescue later."

"And, like you would be, I'll always be there to come to your rescue, lover boy." Jinx replied brightly, patting her love on his content head, "I'll always be your knight in shining armor, most definitely."

"A knight in shining armor, eh? Hah, of course! For both of us, for each other, that went without being said." Augus laughed, finding the "knight in shining armor" comment quite an amusing thought, "Anyway, nah, these cuts of mine - ouch - weren't caused by anything Piltovian, hot stuff. They were in fact caused by the Voidseekers' bodyguards defending the head worshippers in the graveyard tonight."

"The head worshippers? You mean the guys who would have expected the sheriff to come to them tied up tonight if not for us? Sheesh they had guards that actually intended to defend them to the last rather than run when having been found out?" Jinx scolded, gently drawing Augus's sterilized flesh back together with carefully taught strings, "Pft, those guards were a new sort of crazy then. I admit, I myself am a bit unpredictable but a cult having faithful guards? Talk about the worst of fanatics."

"Yeah. The worst, indeed. Considering all of the bad guys we've defeated up to this point, the Voidseekers definitely proved to be something else for the last month." Augus agreed, doing his best not to show much pain while his love finished in stitching up a slash on his left shoulder, "Yet, heh, we _still _beat those creeps, right? Yep. Ouch! As for those big guys in charge who had been waiting for Caitlyn to be brought to them as a captive, can you guess how they reacted when she instead showed up with all of the police? They immediately made to retreat. Typical."

"HAH! They ran? Of course they did! That must have been the best prank of mine I've ever pulled on anyone then." Jinx roared with mirth, drawing her lover into a gentle hug as she giggled to him while imagining the graveyard being full of panicking void worshippers earlier, "Did you see their faces then? I bet those worshippers' jaws dropped near to the ground when the sheriff showed up not as planned but with an army of police following her, right?"

"Ha ha, indeed. That's about right. At the sight of Caitlyn, they fled like the void itself had opened up to take them." The Enduring Protector snickered, clutching at his chest next where a bruise slightly stung, "Anyway, during the resulting confusion where the worshippers scattered and police began making arrests, that's where I blew my own disguise playing undercover as one of the worshippers and gave chase after the leaders. And considering the skills of the guys protecting those leaders, looking at my wounds now, it was a closer call than I'd last checked."

"A closer call, hm? Next time we get involved in something like this, lover boy, no more lone wolf crap." Jinx growled caringly, purposefully lowering her chin to tenderly rest it upon her love's left shoulder whom very much enjoyed her leaning onto him from behind, her fresh scent rolling over him from everywhere it seemed, "Saving Piltover is one thing I'm willing to do for you. But letting you go in on hazardous missions alone like this is another thing entirely. Next time, whether or not its favorable, I'm going with you. Got it?"

"I... I got it. Yes. But Jinx," The Enduring Protector happily replied, reaching up to kindheartedly grip one of the Loose Cannon's hands which she eagerly allowed, "You were very well with me tonight. Yeah, you gave me trusty Zap, remember? And, truly, that little stun gun of yours was the only real reason I so easily subdued the leaders of the Voidseekers as well as fended off the enforcer when she spotted me out of everything that was happening."

"Hmf, that loser. Even though you've done everything for her loser city, leave to Fat-Hands to single you out of the bad guys there at that cemetery." Jinx grumbled, immediately hating the thought of Augus having been assaulted by Vi in the graveyard when there had been bigger fish for her to fry at the time, "Augh, she makes me so angry! Geez, if I'd have been there with you, Augus, I would have-"

"You would have had Fishbones blast Vi to the other side of Runeterra. Yes, I am well aware of that, Jinx. Thank you very much for that." Augus chuckled back, letting go of his lover's hand to motion for her to finish in sewing him up, "Still, I think me having used Zap's EMP blast on Vi's right gauntlet when she attempted to charge me was... more than enough message for her to back off."

"HAH, you disabled her right gauntlet with Zap while she was charging? Nicely done. Very nicely done."

"Heh, thank you, Jinx. And you should have seen the enforcer's face when she flew past me." The Enduring Protector laughed, remembering the bizarre moment almost perfectly since it had transpired a hour ago, "With me being all hurt from subduing the cult leaders beforehand, Vi thought she had me cornered then. That was until she tried to rocket punch me, I zapped her in mid charge, and she sailed clear past me and into the nearest tombstone. Then, seeing as her gauntlet had been disabled and was only dead weight weighing her down, it was easy enough for me to make my get away."

"Good." Jinx simply said, breaking off the needle from the end of string that had just shut Augus's last cut on his back and then leaning down to tenderly kiss him on the cheek when he'd involuntarily gasped from the stinging experience, "Serves loser Fat-Hands right. Only I get to be rough with my boy toy, after all. But not too... _rough_, mind. It seems that even you, heh, have your limits."

"Oh, do I?" The Enduring Protector wondered innocently yet not so innocently while the Loose Cannon began to massage away the tension in his shoulders, "Let's put that theory to the test. Go on. Try me, hot stuff."

"Soon enough." Jinx giggled back, winking playfully at Fishbones on the counter nearby whom seemed to be smirking at her just when Augus had started to become smexy for her, "As I remember, you now owe me a lot for having helped you not only save this boring place called the City of Progress but even if its sheriff too. Nonetheless, before we go into that who owes who stuff, we have to get back to a certain something, Augus."

"We have to get back to something?" Augus responded, looking quite unsure of what was being discussed, "And what exactly would that be?"

"DUH! Your birthday, dummy of mine!" Jinx exclaimed, skipping past her mended lover to the table to pick up her home made cake, turning back about, as well as presenting the decent delicacy to him, "So, happy birthday! Um, yeah, how old are you now? I think I went a bit overboard with the candles but, meh, whatever. All that I knew was that your big day was coming up and... well, I made due."

There was a long silence where the Enduring Protector simply stared at the chocolate cake he was being presented with by the Loose Cannon. Then, for the first time since he'd arrived, with a small smile on his expression, he looked around at the apartment decorated for his special day. In turn, his silence, his unreadable face, seemed to make Jinx a bit nervous about if she'd really done too much to celebrate this event.

Yet, her fears instantly vanished when Augus took the cake from her, looked over the number of candles, then jokingly chuckled, "You made a good guess. Closer than most have made in the past. Yet, you put two more candles than necessary on."

"Two more than needed?"

"Indeed." The Enduring Protector replied to the tense Loose Cannon, turning his bluer than blue eyes upon her crimson ones opposite of him, "So then... how old am I, Jinx?"

"Ah, um, how old are you?" Jinx rambled, trying to count the number of candles on the cake before Augus next set it aside so she couldn't, "Well, gee, ah, uh, twenty... ish?"

Again, there was a long silence where the Enduring Protector - although laughing up a storm on the inside - managed to keep a straight face. As for the Loose Cannon biting her lower lip like there would be no tomorrow while almost dying on the inside, she tried to look her best in the eyes of her love after having voiced her random guess.

"Indeed, you're partly correct. I am twentyish." Augus finally admitted, nodding his head while also taking a hold of Jinx's hands with his own next, "I'll just say it. I happen to be twenty-three."

Twenty-three? Oh, nice. How convenient. Then that meant Jinx was only two years younger than him. So, where had she gotten the idea he was twenty-five? Blah! Dumb, Jinx! Bad girl! Bad bad! Nonetheless, the Loose cannon stopped mentally beating herself up when the Enduring Protector abruptly pulled her close to him. Next she knew, with him embracing her gently yet firmly around the waist, she was sitting on his lap with her face buried in the nape of his neck and his chin resting on her head.

And at this, at being so close to him, did Jinx look as good for Augus as she'd hoped all night long? Did she smell good? Was she beautiful enough for him on this night?

Indeed, although she had had a hard time believing it since deciding to stay in Piltover in last October, she was. She had always been more than good enough for her love in fact, which, with a content sigh, Augus began to make known to her.

"And where it would seem I'm going to be twenty-four soon enough tonight... It would also seem you're as generous and beautiful as ever, Loose Cannon."

Being a rebel against the world for the longest time up to this point in time, never had Jinx honestly thought her life could rotate around a sole sentence voiced by anyone in this world she had not fully understood. Truly, for only several crazy months had she come to meet as well as be with Augus. Yet, there in her apartment hideout, she couldn't have been any happier than she was then on the 24th at hearing she was as generous and beautiful in the eyes of her love than ever.

As Fishbones had reassured her earlier during her fretting, all of her hard work to show that she cared about his birthday, about him, had worked out in the end. In turn to this realization, almost too giddy with excitement for what was to come, the Loose Cannon nuzzled further into her love's neck. Following her example, she felt the Enduring Protector's hug tighten ever so slightly yet clearly around her thin figure.

"Thank you, Jinx." Augus whispered next, clearly meaning it about everything that they had been through in the last month against the Voidseekers, for her having remembered something as special as his birthday tonight, for her having helped him in cleaning up the slums also, "Thanks for all of your help. Thanks for having helped me in becoming the Enduring Protector, in having saved the sheriff and city tonight, in having made me _happy _during it all."

Oh, Jinx had made Augus happy during it all? During the cleaning up of the south parts of town? During the saving of Caitlyn and Piltover from the Voidseekers tonight? During this last hour? How very... gleefully reassuring news that was for her to hear.

Then, abruptly, the Enduring Protector pushed the Loose Cannon from himself to seriously ask of her next at arm's length, taking her completely off guard in turn with what he had to say, "And what of me? I mean, I've always been the one asking things of you. I've always been the one to receive from you and not give in turn. Do I make you happy? Have I made you happy since... we partnered up those few months ago?"

"Of - Of course!" Jinx exclaimed in a kind of squeak at once, a bit shocked with herself at having answered so quickly when she wouldn't have done so with the others she'd jinxed in the past, "I mean... Yes, of course, Augus. Since we, uh, met - No, since you took Mojo hostage... Ha ha, you've made me very happy."

"How?" Augus demanded intently, appearing to be more and more afraid of something that Jinx couldn't seem to understand but was rapidly trying to, "I mean, we say we've been dating for the past month but look at us. We don't even know each other's ages? Wow, we're way behind. And before all of this, I used you to become what I am. I _still _use you. And even though you've helped me through everything, I've never given you the time you deserve or the attention you should have been given. No, it's always been you and only you that's-"

Augus didn't get to finish rambling his emotional, dramatic, well intended sentences. Not when Jinx, after having taken his face into her hands, had softly kissed him to cut in on his prattling, his worries, his troubles over what she had thought had been a healthy - well, mostly healthy - relationship since they'd met and opened up.

Sure, she was willing to admit also that the two of them were a bit behind in getting to know each other. A month in, most couples had practically gone over everything about themselves to one another and gotten bored of it. Yet, if they hadn't talked that much about themselves but were still together now, did that not make Jinx as well as Augus stronger than most? Did that not show they were more deeply connected than predicted? Plus, hah, they weren't a regular couple to begin with. They didn't have a normal relationship. They were bloody, heroic, mercenary icons for Piltover's sake! Ha ha ha!

Either way, here the Loose Cannon had been fretting all night about herself not looking or being her best for the Enduring Protector for his birthday and now... now he was pouring his heart out about having used her, having been unfair to her, having not been his best for her for the past month. Man, what a turn of events, hm? Nonetheless, at seeing that her lover was suffering, at seeing that he was being openly worried over their relationship when he was usually so very calm or in control over everything, something snapped in place for Jinx.

Augus didn't have to worry about his having taken Mojo away from her in the past. He didn't have to feel guilty over having not given his time to Jinx when he had been out saving the city, showing up Piltover's Finest, earning the respect of the people.

Again, just being near the Enduring Protector was more than enough to make the Loose Cannon happy on this night and now knowing that he'd truly cared about her, that he had always had her on his mind, that he was very determined about their relationship in the future, she just kind of... lost control of herself tonight. The both of them did with what Augus next had to say.

Indeed, sitting together in the decorated kitchen, the softer than soft kiss Augus and Jinx shared to keep themselves from rambling about what was supposedly oh so terrible about their unique relationship lasted a little while longer before they parted with a sigh. Then, resting their foreheads together with the Loose Cannon's bangs brushed aside, the Enduring Protector continued to surprise his caring lover by admitting something else he'd experienced in the graveyard in the north parts of town.

"Jinx, I... I haven't been as good to you as I should have been." He began, keeping Jinx from purposefully kissing him to keep him from putting himself down again, "No, I really haven't been, Jinx. You've been the best to me while I've never properly thanked you for it. And now that I see all of this, now that I see you wanting to celebrate my birthday, I need to change something. I need to quit being a hero for a bit."

Whoa, wait... Had the Enduring Protector just said what he'd said? The Loose Cannon Hadn't heard him wrong, right? Right?

Adjusting himself, Augus resolutely stated to his shocked love next, "Yes. Yes, I do. I need to change. You see, Jinx, when I was attacked by the guards protecting those fanatic leaders back in the cemetery tonight, when I got hurt like I did... Zap was in my hand next. And it seemed to act on its own."

During the resulting tender moment, there was a still silence where the Enduring Protector as well as Loose Cannon stared into each other's searching eyes. In the meantime, their hands were intertwined, their bodies slightly shook, their souls maybe even reached out to each other through the stillness.

Then, Augus gulped a bit while he explained further, looking back down at the floor in his oh so adorably shy manner, "Jinx, when I got cut, when I got hurt, when I found myself in a bit more of a fix than I'd predicted against the Voidseekers tonight, Zap was in my hand and blasting away before I even knew it. And when I began firing without thinking, even though I had told you to not follow me, it was like you had and were there with me amid the chaos. And during that entire time Zap fired for me, during the moments I was being chased after by Vi even, there was only one thing that stayed on my mind... You."

Her? The one thing that had been on Augus's mind when he was in danger in Mordecai's Cemetery up north had been Jinx? Dude, heh, he really needed to see someone ASAP then. Why would he be so concerned in thinking of a blue haired, pony tailed, insane, gun wielding terrorist during a most grim time? Wait, why... wouldn't he have? Yeah, why wouldn't he have?!

Indeed, where Jinx would have been openly making fun of anyone else she'd jinxed into liking her back in the day at hearing them being so emotional over her like Augus was being now, the Loose Cannon now oddly found that... she had no jokes, no cracks, just nothing funny in general to throw in her serious love's direction. Instead, wanting to gaze right into the depths of his quivering spirit in his rapidly beating chest and perhaps be lost there, Jinx determinedly listened further to what Augus had to say to her.

And nothing in the world would make her miss all that he was confessing to her. Nothing! This was why she had been born wherever. This was what she had been living for, blowing up stuff for, being a rebel against the world for; to see that special someone - Augus Cousitar, in this case - fall to his knees and begin talking like she was the one thing that he couldn't live without. She was his everything. She was his life, his reason for having woken up every morning, his reason for being alive.

Augus's grip on Jinx's hands tightened next as he stated aloud, completely serious, "Tonight, Jinx, back in that cemetery, many things happened. For one, thanks to us, the Voidseekers were defeated. Secondly, Piltover was made safe again. Thirdly, I..."

"Thirdly?" Jinx wondered, getting a bit irritated that this was where her lover would pause to recollect his thoughts or breathe a new breath or whatever he was doing, "Yes? Thirdly what, Augus? Come on."

"Thirdly, Jinx, I've come to truly understand that you matter and have always mattered more than anything I've ever done in this line of business we call heroics." Augus answered, making Jinx's heart skip several beats in turn, "And tonight, if Zap hadn't made things so easy for me... I might very well have not made it back here to say this all to you. I might not have made it back here to tell you that you are generous, that you are beautiful, that you are important to me. That you are irreplaceable to me."

In all honesty, where was all of this romance business coming from all of sudden? If there was one thing obvious about him, Augus wasn't at all the kind of character who took pleasure in being this unpredictable not to mention spontaneous. Yet, under her hopeful gaze, here he was spilling his heart out for Jinx to hear, to bear witness, to feel excited about.

Still, why was the Loose Cannon getting this excited over this confession? She and he had only been dating for a month, right? They had hardly been together for that much longer... But, wait, what of their time before now? What of their days where they had saved the slums? Had that not been time they'd spent together too? Had that experience been part of their dating progress? Had that not explained enough of a part of themselves to each other?

Ugh, all that Jinx knew at the moment was that she had never imagined herself being placed in this kind of situation where she was being told so many heartfelt, inspiring, maybe even dramatic things all at once. It was like she had fallen into one of those cheesy "Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer" love novels and was now very much, heh, enjoying herself to the fullest.

Yeah. Augus opening up like this. Jinx wasn't minding it at all. Of course, she'd found it corny with everyone else but that had been everyone else. That hadn't been with the Enduring Protector; he who had stolen Mojo from her, who had made her help him clean up Piltover, who had caused her to see a new side to life not filled with revenge against the unfair world, who made her question her views, her lifestyle, and now had taken her heart completely into his grasp.

"With the cult of Malzahar now removed, Piltover is as good as its going to get, Jinx. I feel... I know that there's no more reason for you nor I to be here anymore." The Enduring Protector explained to the blushing Loose Cannon, bringing her back to reality, "Nah, the City of Progress is safe. We're no longer needed. To help our relationship, for me to make up everything you've done for me, we can and should go elsewhere."

"Go elsewhere?" Jinx hastily wondered back, wondering over how her lover would handle such a change when he had such a good connection here in this city while also feeling absolutely giddy with glee that he was willing to do such a thing for her meanwhile, "Augus, you... you would do that? Truly, you've made me more than happy since we met. But we do not have to do so very much as just leave everything behind. I mean, I'm not the kind of girl that needs to be pampered every minute of every day. You're fine. You've always been fine."

"Don't act like you don't want to travel, Loose Cannon. Even when I've told you to do so in the past, you can hardly ever stay in one place with me watching you." Augus humorously chuckled, stopping being serious for a moment to smile at Jinx's apprehensive expression, "We've worked hard. We've done what we set out to do for the City of Progress. It's on its own now. Piltover's Finest are in charge again. Now... now it's just us. You and me. Just say it's a good idea to go elsewhere than here to work on our relationship, okay? Please?"

"Yes, okay, okay, okay." The Loose Cannon quickly put in, nuzzling into the Enduring Protector's neck in turn while trying to not have a heart attack from happiness at the same time, "If that is what will put your mind to rest, Augus... If we must go somewhere else so that we can work on what's happening between us then, yes, I will go with you somewhere other than Piltover. You're right about leaving. After all we've done, we deserve a vacation."

Then, sitting up to look him in the eyes or maybe even soul, Jinx asked of her lover, "But where will we go then? Where is it you have in mind?"

"Anywhere would do." Augus simply admitted, putting on a thoughtful face next, "Well, actually, Demacia would be strict. Noxus would be crazy. Scratch that, Zaun would CRAZY. Ionia would be, meh, boring. In Bandle City, we'd be surrounded by practically kids. So, if we're going to be working on our dating and we want to do it without the world screaming about it or interfering all too much... Freljord would be our best bet."

"Freljord? When winter is almost here?" Jinx wondered back, raising an eyebrow at her smiling love, "Not that I mind the idea but, well, Augus, you're always complaining about the cold. You're not a fan of the snow. If we go there... you're going to be griping every minute of every hour of every day of every month of every-"

"True, I might not be a fan of being cold. Yet, you know what I would hate more?" The Enduring Protector interjected, enjoying very much the scent of the Loose Cannon's aqua hairstyle in his face, "I hate the idea of being single again. I hate the idea of losing you. And in Freljord, where there is nothing but ice as well as snow, where there will be no one who will know us, we'll make things work between us. I'll repay you for everything you've done for me. And I won't gripe about the cold. I won't."

"You won't, eh?"

"I will not. Cross this heart of mine, hope to die, never will I-"

"Ha ha, okay, fine. Even though you've done a good job of paying me back for everything you've asked of me, lover boy, Freljord it is." Jinx giggled, brushing her bangs out of her attractive face, "Hey, maybe we could even rile up some trouble for the Winter Claws there? Yeah, we could bury em in an avalanche or something, right?"

"Uh, well, hm, I don't really think that they deserve such a cruel fate as-"

"Ah, Augus, here, wait a moment. Let me get you your... birthday present! Dun dun dun!"

"What? Seriously?" Augus questioned when Jinx next vanished into the bedroom to reappear with a medium sized, gift wrapped box which he accepted when it was offered to him, "Jinx, you having made the cake and food and all of these decorations was more than enough. Now a gift?"

"Yep, a gift from me to you." The Loose Cannon snickered excitedly, motioning for no more talk but action, "Go on. Open it up. Go, go, go."

Feeling very guilty over being pampered like this but encouraged by his curiosity as to what Jinx could have possibly gotten him, Augus did indeed open his birthday present. What he found inside made him pause a moment to look at his lover next and wonder, "Care to do the honors?"

"I thought you'd never ask, handsome." Jinx tittered, reaching into the box to hold up as well as begin strapping a leather strap around the chest of her love which sported a newly made, custom built Zap gun in the holster, "And now you'll have a Zap of your own wherever you go. We'll be frying, stunning, electrifying every job we do in style!"

"Are you sure your own Zap won't be too jealous of mine here?" Augus wondered, getting to his feet to look himself over with his newest stun gun, "It looks like you really went of your way to... Well, duh, of course you went out of your way to make this for me, didn't you?"

"Yep. And don't worry about there being any jealousy between our guns, lover boy." The Loose Cannon giggled, playfully tugging on the Enduring Protector's newest leather strap while tantalizingly biting her lower lip meanwhile, "This Zap of yours will just be the cousin of my own or whatever. Anyway, we're all going to get along. We all agreed on it. No worries."

The gift - the newest Zap gun for Augus Cousitar - had been a well thought out, purposeful, good one. The night in question, although rough, had been a bit dramatic, emotional, yet a fantastic one. Nevertheless, there was still one thing on both Augus as well as Jinx's minds not settled and when their eyes next connected... an unspoken message passed between them that made the Enduring Protector wordlessly take off his Zap gun, place it upon the table, then turn back to his lover to pull her close to himself, share a caring smile with her, then exchange a rather gentle kiss.

Then, when Jinx dove in to try to encourage him to go beyond being a gentle kisser, as she guided his hands from holding her sides to resting upon her thighs if not rear, Augus made her hesitate when he blankly if not dumbly wondered, "You know... I never got to try any of that cake of yours."

Cake? Augus wanted some actual baked cake and not some of the one he was currently kissing at the moment? What?!

"What are you talking about, you tease." Jinx immediately giggled, biting her lower lip which she knew drove her love wild, "We both know I'm terrible in the kitchen. In the bedroom though... well, heh, you know. Yeah, I'm pretty good in the bedroom."

"You think you're a terrible cook? I've never even seen you cook until now. " Augus innocently said back, pushing the humor to its limit as Jinx began to try kissing him and he constantly eluded her in turn by leaning back, "Is that why you've always come to me for meals in the past? That explains a bit. Still, you can't be that terrible at cooking. And leaving all of that cake untouched seems like such a waste-"

"Shut up." Jinx laughed, now trying to grab onto Augus's face so that she could show him how badly she wanted to kiss him right now, "The cake can wait. The bedroom can't. Now shut up and come here - Hey!"

Next she knew, Jinx had had both of her hands grabbed by one of Augus's own, was shoved against the table to be laid fully back out on it where the utensils clattered to the floor, and was now experiencing her love laying himself out on top of her. Then, with their playful faces centimeters apart, with their eyes glinting mischievously, Jinx gave a pleasured gasp when she felt Augus's free hand purposefully drifting beneath the gown of her summer dress next to ever so gently yet tantalizingly brush along her thighs.

Then, in the blink of an eye, during her next gasp of surprise that turned into wanting, oh fuck... then she could the palm of his hand slowly rubbing, pressing, taking advantage of her already roused womanhood beneath her exposed panties.

Then, as the Loose Cannon could hardly believe it, the teasing had stopped in the next tick of the second hand on the bell tower in Diamond Square. Instead of be interested in her like he knew she wanted from him ever so badly, the Enduring Protector had actually turned from the distressed Loose Cannon to grab a fork. Then, he went to get a piece of the untouched cake nearby which, after having grabbed a bite, he took a few moments to look content about while chewing.

"Hm, I really did get lucky on that day I stole Mojo from you, Jinx." August next said, getting another bite of cake to enjoy while his lover showed a bit of shock, "You pamper me in battle, in bed, and now for meals? Hah, this cake isn't half bad. Seriously, you did good."

Wait, Jinx had done good cooking the cake? Honestly? Well, that was indeed answered when - still held down, mind - the Loose Cannon was given a bite of her own which, indeed, did taste quite good. In turn at having enjoyed her own dessert, while Augus watched her in amusement, she made a big deal about licking her lips and breathing heavily. And if she wasn't mistake... there was a certain something of a bulge between her love's legs that poked her right leg at seeing her lick her lips of chocolate. Good.

"Yeah, your cake is awesome." Augus simply concluded, refusing to take the obvious hints to take advantage of his helpless lover who wanted him to, "Seriously, why have you always come to me for my cooking when you yourself aren't that bad?"

"Augus, ha ha, stop it!" Jinx erupted finally, struggling to free herself but not at all successful as Augus kept her laid out like he wanted, "Ugh, fuck you! Leave the cake for later and let's just do this! That or I'm going to explode!"

"Wow, calm down. We have all night. We've barely even started anything and you're already ready for action? What?" The Enduring Protector mused with a chuckle, reaching over to the cake not with his fork but his hand next, "And fuck me? Pft, I'm not the one laid out on the table completely open to anything about to be done to me, am I? Nope. I'm not. So, hm, fuck you, perhaps?"

"Exactly!" Jinx exclaimed, purposefully bucking her hips upward which made Augus burst out laughing, losing his grip over the situation, "Fuck me already! Quit laughing, handsome, and just do it!"

"Only after one more thing. Okay?"

"Okay, what - AUGH! WHAT?!" Jinx screamed out when Augus unexpectedly slapped a portion of cake onto her curious expression, "I - you - ooh - Oh, you're letting me up now? Hah, you're dead! You're so mine! Fishbones, get em!"

"Oh, hey, wait, no! That's not how this was supposed to go!" The Enduring Protector shouted out, trying to find some cover to no avail as the hyper Loose Cannon went about actually shoving some of her cake into her rocket launcher's maw, "Jinx, seriously, I'm wounded! I'm hurt! Do you want to have to sew me up again? Don't do it! Don't-"

"TOUGH!" Jinx energetically laughed, taking aim with Fishbones building up heat, "Screw your stitches! Screw your injuries! Screw you! Now you're gonna get it!"

Yet, as Augus prepped himself for a painful blast of cake, as he heard Fishbones's trigger click, as he closed his eyes, nothing happened to him. Instead, just as he was opening his eyes once more to see what had happened, he found that Jinx had thrown aside her rocket launcher, charged him, and now had tackled him onto the floor where with much hungry biting, sucking, along with kissing, she now had him somewhat pinned down on his back with her looming over him.

Uh oh. The tables had been turned. They had just been JINXED!

* * *

_**End of "Safe and Sound"...**_


	6. Safe and Sound and More

**C****hapter Six: "Safe and Sound and More"**

"_Love? Hm, that's quite the foreign word to me. Truly, despite all of my close experiences with it or some things close to it, I cannot say that I really understand its methods or how it works. All that I really do know is - seeing as I've partaken in the substitutes on many a occasion in the past - that it's often mistaken for lust, demand, greed. I myself know that love is really nothing more than a collection of primal or carnal desires that are so very easily directed, guided, misused. Nevertheless, love is not entirely a bad thing. I must admit that if I were to find such a wonderful thing, I would no longer need to search for new prey. I could keep coming back to just that one individual... and maybe even call myself human at last." _**- Ahri, the Nine Tailed Fox**

* * *

Here and now, with everything rapidly heating up, on the floor, this was what the night had been building up to for Augus and Jinx. As Fishbones had said to her about her dress earlier, they would be in the bedroom soon enough... wearing _nothing _at all. So, screw bruises, screw dramatics, screw Piltover. Now, for the next half hour or so, there was only the Enduring Protector, the Loose Cannon, and their coming union.

There, struggling on the confetti littered floor, with him trying to push himself upright but the partially caked faced her shoving him back down while never breaking from their passionate kissing the entire time, the Enduring Protector and Loose Cannon were furiously fighting for space, to gain dominance or remain dominant, to take part in a sensual ritual older than the oldest tales. And together, as they'd done many times during the past month, they would be climbing this certain mountain of passion once more tonight.

"Trying to stay on top, huh?" Augus defiantly gasped between kissing, barely being given enough time to say anything before Jinx aggressively lip locked him again, "You think you're, ungh, hot stuff, don't you, hot stuff?"

"And aren't I?" Was Jinx's humored/hungry response while she next began to undo her aroused love's belt, "More than you can handle, anyway."

"Hah! Look at you talk big! We'll see about that!" The Enduring Protector growled, actually being given the opportunity to sit up to bite, nip, just plain dominate the Loose Cannon's neck with affection and cause her to pause in undoing his pants while she instead ran her fingers through his hair, "But not here... See, this particular bed we call the floor is a bit too stiff for my tastes. You?"

"Heh, yeah." Jinx lustily answered, staring into the sapphire eyes of her lover when he looked up from the mentioned floor and to her, "But if you want to go somewhere more suitable for what we're about to do... you know what that means you have to do."

"Pft, okay, you want me to give you a _horse ride _into the bedroom? Really?" Augus joked around, surging with strength and ignoring his aching cuts when he suddenly got to his feet as well as lifted a shocked Jinx up with him, her legs instinctively wrapping around his waist in turn while his hands kept her up by holding her by the thighs, "Hmf, don't make this too corny, hot stuff. You can only go so far with that joke. Here, this should do it. Now, during this kind of ride, I still get to kiss you and you don't have to walk. It's a win-win-"

Again, like earlier, like when he had been pouring his heart and soul out to her on the kitchen chair minutes ago, Augus didn't get to finish what he had been meaning to say. Not when Jinx had grabbed him by the back of his head with one hand to pull him into her latest ambitious not to mention passionate kiss. In the meantime, while the Enduring Protector purposefully walked them both across the kitchen floor and through the bedroom door into the bedroom, the Loose Cannon's other hand not holding her love's lips to her own was busy resuming undoing his belt, ripping it off to toss on the floor, and then unzipping his pants to attempt to get at whatever girth that was causing the large bulge in his pants.

Yet, as his more than earnest lover looked to pull out his throbbing manhood from its hiding place like so many times before, Augus pulled a familiar stunt that sent Jinx into a cycle of fits of tension, of lust, of disbelief. Indeed, when she had just ripped his pant's zipper open, when she had just tugged at his pant's waist to be able to grab him where it mattered most, the Enduring Protector had lowered/thrown the Loose Cannon down upon the soft mattress of her more than large enough bed to roughly grab both of her hands before holding them down above her blue haired head.

"Oh, not cool. Heh, get off of me." Jinx hissed, seeing through her fierce hunger for him that Augus had once again - like several times in the past month - put her right where he wanted her on the mattress tonight, "C'mon, we both know how this night is going to end, Augus. Heh, yet, you're going to make me work for it once again, hm?"

"Yep. And you look oh so very disappointed that you'll have to work to get me again, hot stuff." Augus breathed back to his love, lowering his face down to begin loving her exposed neck, chest, arms with tender kisses and a lick or two here or there to make her groan, gasp, yelp, "You and I both know that I don't just... hand myself out. If you really want me, if you really want to see what's in these pants of mine, welllllll... get to it then. Come and get me."

"Okey-dokey! Fuck!" Jinxed laughed next, bucking her hips into Augus when he began to ever so wickedly rub the noticeable bulge in between his legs in between her thighs, "You'd best get ready, Augus... Tonight, you're really gonna learn what getting _JINXED _means! You might even come to regret it."

"With you, Jinx," Augus suddenly stated, making his heavily panting love arch her back while he went on to pull off her dress over her head to toss it aside as well as quickly unclip her modest bra next, "I'll regret nothing. I've never regretted anything. Always keep that in mind, won't you?"

"Augus, the feeling is mutual." Jinx said back, being foiled in her attempts to get at her lover's privates once more during his time at removing her upper torso of clothes and now finding herself laid completely out as well as at the mercy of him, "But, most of all, with you, Augus... I have never been happier. You make me happy, handsome. You've always made me happy."

A pause passed where the Enduring Protector and Loose Cannon watched each other. Then, Augus leaned down until face to face with Jinx to say to her, "Forgive me for being blunt tonight but... You not only make me happy, Jinx. I've never regretted anything I've ever done with you. What if I were, in all seriousness, to say I was in love with you on this night?"

"You haven't said that all of the time to me before now?" Jinx laughed, smiling a sweet smile under the intent gaze of her love, "Don't worry, Augus. You've never had to worry about that not being out there. It's been plain to me since October. Since before October, actually. And now, seeing as I've loved you for as long as you have me, be it in Piltover or the Freljord or wherever... I'll love you also. I'll forever love you."

Huh, love. True love at that. How quickly this month long relationship between the Enduring Protector and Loose Cannon had just escalated, hm? Well, that was love for you. True love, anyway.

Nevertheless, despite the rush of the moment, inspired by the tender words they'd just shared, encouraged by the feelings of affection, of lust, of need in his beating core aflame, Augus wasted no more time on gossips that he knew the answers to. He instead dove down upon Jinx whom eagerly accepted his assault of keen kisses, allowing his tongue to push between her lips to begin to tangle, to dance, to fight with hers. Then, she couldn't help but moan into his mouth her want for more when Augus pushed his aching bulge in his pants against her wet snatch concealed beneath only a thin layer of aqua panties.

For several minutes, deeply involved in the passion of the moment between them, tangled in each other's presence, with him looming over as well as teasing her into a practiced state of frenzied need, Augus along with Jinx intensely kissed. Every so often, they would break apart so that - with him still holding her down, with him rubbing his concealed manhood into her fiery womanhood in purposeful mockery of the most wicked kind - Augus could kiss, nip, lick, claim whatever open territory he could upon Jinx's helplessly pinned body. And wherever he planted his lips, wherever he bit down, when he forced both of his lover's hands into one of his own to use his freed hand to squeeze her flat yet enticing chest while also sucking with his mouth, Jinx's exclamations, yelps, cries grew louder if not fiercer in volume.

Truly, by the time the Enduring Protector had returned to hungrily claiming the Loose Cannon's lips in his own, when his free hand actually tugged at the waist of her delicate panties to let her fiery lower lips be exposed to the air, Jinx was so very agitated, so very lost in pleasure, so very wet down below. Indeed, when Augus partially pulled her undergarments down to her knees and next - caringly, mind - inserted two of his fingers into the most prized region of her body... she practically deafened not only herself but her love by screaming a scream of pleasure, of want, of need for everything to come together as it soon would.

As he went about working his two digits into her dampened snatch with increased speed, as he experienced his lover lose herself in a state of blind joy underneath him due to his efforts, the Enduring Protector couldn't keep from noticing through all of his primal wants of lust at just how perfect this moment seemed to be. He couldn't help but marvel at how very perfect Jinx - although formerly a goofy terrorist, yes - was to him tonight.

How had he come to be with this girl in October? How on Runeterra had he been given this honor in life to not only be with her but be able to be such a big part of her life, her needs, her purpose?

And at thinking of these things, as he lowered his head onto her heaving chest while his hand rapidly jammed into as well as out of her vag, Augus smiled a grateful smile and listened while his love went on exclaiming jumbles of words, while she grabbed at the bed sheets, while she clung to him at moments and screamed his name in approval!

"I'm going to - Oh, fuck! Augus! AUGH!" Jinx finally managed to hiss through her exclamations, making sweating Augus look contently up at her while she looked down at him laid out on her chest, "OH, UGH, I'm going to fucking cum!"

"And you needed to make that an announcement?" Augus couldn't help but smoothly joke, finding it increasingly delightful to see his love scrunch her expression, to see her body wet with sweat, to see her give a most needful face for him to finish her off in a way, "I mean, hah, look at you, Jinx. Without it being said, you're obviously at the point of no return here. I could have guessed you were on the verge of cumming. And what if I were to suddenly get an arm cramp, hm? What if I were to stop now?"

"Then you and Fishbones - Oh fuck - will be having - aaaaaaaah - an explosive talk afterwards! Don't stop! Nuh, whatever you do, Augus - aha - don't stop!"

"Well, duh. Do I ever? No. But, geez, Jinx, you're driving even me to the point of no return. You're just that hot right now. Damn." Augus hissed, really going at rapidly pushing his fingers into his escalating lover's pussy, freeing up both of his hand to do so now, "Oh, don't worry, about me though. I'm gonna finish you off first... But after this one is finished, there will still be plenty to be done afterwards. Plenty of me, anyways. By Piltover, Jinx, let loose already. I feel like I'm starting to hurt you here-"

"SHUT UP!" Jinx howled, grabbing humored Augus by his hair with her freed hands and pulling his head down onto her rapidly beating, heated chest where she held him closer to her, "STOP BEING SO DAMNED CONCERNED FOR ME AND FUCK ME UNTIL I - OH, AAAAAAAHHH! DAMMIT!"

The Enduring Protector didn't exclaim or cry out or twitch or anything negative when the Loose Cannon shook her hardest yet. Indeed, with her eyes rolling into the back of her head, with her mouth open in both delight if not strain, with her inner walls clenching around her love's invading digits, the fire that had been building too big in both Jinx's body as well as mind was extinguished with the violent expulsion of juices that flowed forth from her pulsing nether regions. Then, when she had drained herself, when she had stopped arching her spine to lay back down upon the bed in a heaving heap, there was a prolonged quiet.

Augus, used to the way their sexual intercourse was due to a month of having enjoyed it with her, removed his drenched hand from Jinx's swollen clit. Slowly, he looked over his wet fingers. Then, he glanced to Jinx who - with a slow yet sure grin - watched him wag two fingers in her direction. One finger he sucked dry himself, enjoying the familiar hints of flavor that seemed to be peach. Then, when offered the other finger, Jinx hungrily took it to suck too. Only this time, even when she had licked her juices from his hand, the Loose Cannon went on licking, sucking, popping the Enduring Protector's digits in her mouth.

"I have to say, Jinx, your cake tasted good." Augus said, pulling back his hand from his lover's teasing mouth to put it down at her side, "But you, you're... a treat without equal. There is nothing that tastes as good as you."

"Glad to hear that. Heh, really glad." The Loose Cannon sighed, looking as well as feeling quite winded form the experience, "Um... my dress. What... what did you think of it?"

"Hm? Oh, your dress? Ah, yes." Augus quickly replied, glancing over at the Demacian styled, summer dress colored tropical, "It looked good. You looked beautiful in it... But do you know what, Jinx?"

"I don't know, actually. What is it?"

"You, hot stuff... You look good in anything. And, ahem, especially in nothing like now."

"Fuck you." Jinx suddenly giggled, reaching up to frame her love's face in her hands happily, "Or, hm, more like fuck me. Where have you been in my life, Augus? Why couldn't I have run into you sooner than I did in October?"

"That is a very good question. One that I have often asked myself too in the past but also one that doesn't need an answer anymore." The Enduring Protector concluded, gently kissing his love on the lips at which she sighed, "We don't need to ask it anymore. Not since October when we found each other, anyway. Because here we are now, not in the past but the present. Here we are, with each other."

There was a tender silence for a long moment where, intertwining their fingers at moments, the young couple - the man on top, the woman laid out beneath him - simply stared into each other's eyes. Then, abruptly, Augus began laughing. Soon enough, aloud, he was falling over onto the mattress where he was laughing up a storm.

"And what is so very funny, hm?" Jinx questioned next, surging with newfound not to mention devious strength and taking advantage of her lover no longer on top of her but laid out beside her by laying on top of him next moment, "Tell me before I make you lose your pants and see how you taste."

"Oh, hah, yes! I can't remember the last time you tasted me, Jinx!" Augus immediately exclaimed, his expression very excited as Jinx spread his zipper to hungrily tug at the waist of his pants but not before he explained himself, "Oh, why am I laughing? Well, hah, you may not where I was before we met... but I know where you were!"

"And where was I?"

"You were busy blowing shit up, making people run, and forging official WANTED posters of yourself wherever in Runeterra!" The Enduring Protector roared out, covering his face as he laughed harder than ever and the Loose Cannon ripped off his pants with a humored roll of her crimson eyes.

"And, as of now... I know where I am." Jinx purred, very much aroused at seeing the sizable bulge poking awkwardly in her love's exposed boxers which he would soon be losing too, "I'm here with you. I'm here and you're here and you're about to learn what getting Jinxed really means."

"Go for it." Augus growled, honestly bracing himself when Jinx seized his undergarments and fiercely ripped them in two to let his throbbing pride as well as joy be shown to the open in all its pulsing glory, a bit of pre-cum having escaped from the display earlier, "And you can tear my boxers like that but don't tear me where it matters most - OH, WOW, UNGH, HAH!"

Augus didn't have to worry about his manhood being torn in two like his boxers had been due to Jinx's eager hands. Not when she had just taken his length into her mouth, sucked on it roughly, then popped it out of her mouth to begin licking its length while also handling it in both of her hands.

All of the time since they had met on the rooftop where he had come to be in possession of Mojo, Augus had been in charge of everything during missions throughout Piltover. Now, though, in the bedroom always... he lost control. Sure, he was an excellent lover, an excellent fight, an excellent everything. Yet, when it came down to him being pleasured by Jinx like currently, he wasn't in charge of anything anymore. He was at her mercy, under her command, he was her victim much like how she had just recently been when he had been fingering her. Except her form of revenge against him in bed now - having been built up since he'd thrown cake in her face at the kitchen table - was most terrible, most cunning, most mischevious.

Repeatedly, gentle sometimes, rough at other moments, Jinx teased, taunted, encouraged her love's length into a perfectly solid stand before letting it frustratingly loosen a bit and then be turned rock solid next instant. Every so often, she would take the rod into her mouth to play with it with her tongue while - as Augus bucked, arched his back, gasped involuntarily at the attention - she gently raked her nails up as well as down his now fully naked torso.

"Wait, Jinx, nuh," Augus abruptly gasped, seeing his lover stop in giving his manhood the attention it needed as she laid herself on top of heavily breathing him instead, "you can't just stop like that! You can't quit halfway!"

"Oh but I can and have." Jinx mused, trailing one of her fingers along Augus's shoulders while she took in how cute he looked when not getting his way in bed, when he was being jinxed, "Now you're the one getting jinxed, Augus. I'm showing you how it felt to be me a few seconds ago. So, take it like the good boy you are, wouldn't you?"

"Fuck that!" August snarled, looking to take over and appease his lustful needs but being shoved back down where Jinx sat on his midriff and her hands pressed down upon his chest, "Okay, wow, hah, ugh, I do so deserve being held down like this... And you make it worth it every time, hot stuff!"

"I know that." The Loose Cannon snickered back, reaching behind her to take a hold of her shocked love's length and watch his expression go from being excited to being purely distressed, "And I'm going to make it worth a lot more. I wonder, is this cock of yours like a shifting stick in one of those hextech vehicles in this city?"

"What?! I'm no car, Jinx! I - AHA!"

"Hm, I need to go to the store to pick up a few more things for your birthday." The Loose Cannon innocently yet not so innocently announced to the aroused Enduring Protector trapped below her, cutely looking thoughtful with a finger tapping her chin and her eyes looking upward as she jerked on the erect cock in her hand behind her, "So, let's shift into first gear to get out of the garage or whatever. Now, we're out on the road... second shift and third shift it is."

"Dammit, Jinx, I - AH - wasn't at all this mean to - AUGH - you! Stop this before - OH, UNGH! HAH!"

"Okay, now we're on the freewaaaaaay. Sooooo... Fourth shift maybe?"

"JINX! I'm gonna explode before you even get the chance to opick up whatever you have in mind - HNGH - By Piltover, I really hate stick shift vehicles right now! I hate them so very much!"

"Oh, pft, you don't lie very well in bed, Augus." Jinx laughed, knowing full well that her love couldn't have been more thankful for stick shift cars as she went on stroking his manhood stiffening against her backside, "We're just going out for a drive. That's all - Oh, hm. Getting a bit too excited, are we?"

Augus couldn't keep from pre-cumming a bit on Jinx's hand when she made a most serious if not direct stroke on his length. What she did next though nearly made him lose all control of his being. Looking innocently at the bit of his white seed he'd involuntarily loosed on the back of her hand, the Loose Cannon licked the excited Enduring Protector's cum off of her hand next before leaning in close to audibly gulp it down.

Then, when finished, she nipped his neck before whispering, "It seems a _certain_ wait can't stop, lover boy. We need to make a _special_ stop before attending to the rest of the shopping list. There are special items we have to get to first. Feel up to it, hm?"

"By the hells, YES!" Augus half laughed-half shouted back at his smirking love whom rose to her feet, positioned her throbbing clit over his expectant penis, then smugly watched him exclaim, "Jinx, for the love of - Just do it! Come on! Ugh, let's do this!"

"Say you're jinxed first."

"I'm jinxed! I'm so jinxed right now!"

"Tsk, tsk, you know that won't do." Jinx tutted, looking to sit back down on Augus's midriff in disappointment, "It seems that special stop of ours is going to have to wait until a certain someone gets the hint that he really needs to _mean_ what he says-"

"Jinx! Alright, alright!" Augus sharply exclaimed over his lover, shaking his swimming head annoyingly in the sheets, "I... I submit. You win. You always win. You got me. I'm jinxed. You jinxed me."

"There we go." Jinx chimed, leaning in close to tense Augus as she softly said to him next, "Now, what happens when you're jinxed?"

"I... I owe you."

"You owe me what?"

"Oh for the love of... I owe you smexy time. A lot of it."

"Hah, yes you do. Good boy." The Loose Cannon agreed, now grabbing onto Augus's length to put it just at her swollen clit, "You owe me smexy time. So, get ready. You're going to give it to me. Got it?"

"Got it! I'd be more than happy to!" Augus gasped, awaiting the moment to go to town on his lover, "Just... give me the signal or say so or do whatever!"

"Heh, alright." Jinx breathed, readying her own self for both pleasure and minor pain, "And we'll be beginning... Now - AH!"

To have his aching sword sheathed at last, to have her walls swallow his rod up into her, Augus both yelped as well as thanked the gods that he was finally being given the chance to delight Jinx yet another time in bed. This time around though, he was not really in control. Not at first anyway. No, it was Jinx whom was deciding on rhythm, on intensity, on how rapid she was going up as well as down on his erected length!

Yet, soon enough, as she began to lose control over her own senses in the resulting sexual delight, as she got a bit sloppy in doing things over him and had him pop out of her every so often, the Enduring Protector had rolled the Loose Cannon off of himself to have her be below him once more. Nevertheless, instead of pinning her down on the mattress like beforehand, he grabbed her up into his arms, giving her the bonus of being able to look him in the face as well as wrap her hands around the back of his neck while he began to intensely pump himself into her repeatedly.

Several times, holding each other tightly, both sweating without end, their heads resting on each other's shoulders, gasping aloud, Augus and Jinx shared a quick kiss while they remained in each other for the entire duration. Gradually, obviously, their bodies gained flames of passion that engulfed their bodies, their senses, their minds. And soon enough, those fires of lust or love or whatever they were had taken a hold of everything in the couple.

Having been slow, precise at first in his thrusts, the Enduring Protector no longer behaved so. Instead, he had the Loose Cannon down on her back again on the bed, their eyes locked on each other's expectant expressions, their levels of bodily delight reaching their maximum faster than they could yell out each other's names. Then, something snapped in both of their minds in simultaneous order and the eventful night of sex, of pleasure, of love, of happy birthday, came to an end.

Jinx, screaming her trying lover's name the entire time, came a second time. Thus, still being rammed repeatedly, her bodily fluids sprayed onto Augus's pumping length as well as soaked his thighs. Nonetheless, still working on his own heights, absorbed in his own pleasure but realizing he had to pull out of her last second, Augus didn't slow in his actions until exploding too at which he managed to pop out of his weary love and cover her in his own milky spray. Then, with both of them panting, with both of them worn utterly out, Jinx guided Augus gently down to lay beside her.

For the longest silence ever it seemed, the Loose cannon as well as Enduring Protector said nothing to one another while recovering from what had been one of their best nights to date. Truly, tonight altogether had been so very different than any other.

Then, brushing her tired love's hair out of his bright eyes for him and as he did the same for her, Jinx whispered to Augus, "Heh, you're the best of my guns, Augus. But, sssssh, don't say anything to my other guns. Okay?"

"Sure... thing..." Augus panted, a knowing, small smile on his expression as he tried to stay awake, "I'll especially... be discreet around Fishbones..."

"Oh, he knows. It's the others that are still adjusting." The Loose Cannon admitted to the Enduring Protector before scolding herself on realizing something, "Your cuts... ugh, we're going to have to take a look at them next morning and be sure we didn't, well, do anything to make them worse. We might even have to redo some, you know."

"Worth... it." Augus chuckled, his eyes flickering open and shut wearily as his lover went on tracing her fingers through his hair, "Getting jinxed and having a few stitches afterwards? Totally worth it. Like always, Jinx... you were worth it. Every minute of it."

And at this, at being told such a tender thing, the Loose Cannon ignored her icky situation and cuddled closer to her love whom very much accepted her warmth. Soon enough, he had fallen asleep himself. Later, Jinx fell asleep also.

Yet, the Loose Cannon only remained slumbering for so very long into the night before - after having had repeated nightmares of a certain Piltovian Enforcer having assaulted Augus in the cemetery tonight, after the same enforcer had pummeled him good, after she had chained him up in some dirty cell and next come at him with a nightstick - the Loose Cannon had delicately yet resolutlely gotten out of bed, showered herself off, tied her ponytail into two separate ones again, then fetched her outfit of belts along with array of weapons scattered everywhere in her hideout.

"Where we going so early in the morning hours, you?" Fishbones grumbled sleepily to Jinx when she had exited her hideout by climbing a ladder to the roof of the apartment complex, fully equipped with her usual trickster gear as well as dressed in a heavyset of clothes to handle the presently cold weather, "Why are you not back there enjoying the company of birthday boy? Oh, wait, you two have already enjoyed each other's company tonight, right? Right-"

"Stop talking for minute, Fishbones, and maybe I can explain our reason for being out here." Jinx hissed to her rocket launcher, drawing her coat tighter over her skinny self when getting out into the nippy air on the roof, "Augus barely got away from the graveyard earlier tonight because of a certain someone. I'll give you three guesses who."

"Okay, uh, um... Loser Fat-Hands, Loser Fat-Hands, and Loser Fat-Hands, correct?"

"That's exactly right." Jinx huffed, really hating the enforcer more than ever before at the thought that she had hassled Augus earlier when he had been helping the city be safe another day, "And seeing as she hurt Augus and it's still his birthday... I have a particular idea for a last minute present for him for his twenty-fourth birthday."

"Heh, you gonna get back at the enforcer of Piltover, are you?" Fishbones chuckled in his clank of a way, "Is that it? Great. Just let me know where you need me to fire and - Hey, uh, what's with the cans of spray paint?"

"We're not going out to remove the Enforcer permanently, Fishbones, you rust face. We're just going out to do a little redecorating on her most prized possession." The Loose Cannon chortled, looking northward to Piltover's rich districts across the river, "We're going out to do a little vandalizing. Soon, the city will know Jinx was here again."

"Great. I'm ready to go whenever you are." Fishbones stated, adding in when his creator began to expertly run, jump, along with navigate her way north by traversing rooftops, "Hey, did you say that your special guy is going to be celebrating his twenty-fourth birthday today? Great! Now you know how old each other is! It would seem you really are jinxed by each other. You're opening up."

"Yep." Jinx casually replied to her rocket launcher, leaping over a long gap between rooftops with ease, "It would seem we are. You were right, Fishbones. I didn't have to worry about anything tonight. Augus is perfect. He always has been. He always will be."

"And, uh, I couldn't help but overhear that he was thinking about... new living arrangements?" Fishbones wondered next, "Living arrangements more _northward_ than we are now."

"That's right."

"Then, if that's the case... This is a serious relationship, isn't it? You're going to go with him north into Freljord, aren't you?"

"At the moment, I'm going out to redecorate Loser Fat-Hand's most prized things, Fishbones. If I'm willing to do that to her simply because she touched Augus... Do you think I'm willing to follow him into the north if he wants to go there?"

"Yep." Fishbones answered simply, his voice a bit triumphant, "And pardon me for saying so but you seem to be on the road to being, well... turned partially normal."

"Perhaps I am. Perhaps we all are, Fishbones." Jinx admitted, stopping at a ladder to slide down its length onto the street near the bridge leading across to the city's north parts and saying as she did next, "All that is certain is that whatever Augus does, I will do. Whatever he thinks, I will listen. Wherever he goes, I will go."

"And whoever gets in his way or threatens him," Fishbones cackled, noticing the grim expression on Jinx's expression as she was thinking of Vi in the north parts of town at the exact moment, "you'll be sure to be there to stand up for him, right?"

"Right." Jinx grimly answered before discreetly running through the cold, her weapons upon her back and at her sides, to cross the bridge and pay a certain, frustrated, exhausted enforcer of Piltover a visit on this night, "I'll be there to stand up for him if not catch him too. It would seem that way, yes. And it's going to stay that way for a while. As long as possible if not forever even."

"I see." Fishbones replied, his eyes twinkling in the many passing street lights and his steely maw looking a bit like it was knowingly smiling at what had been recently said about Jinx following Augus anywhere and everywhere, "Well, seeing as I have no legs or will of my own... I'm with you, sister. Lead whichever way and, like I've always done for you, I'll be sure to follow you wherever you go."

"I know, Fishbones. I know."

* * *

_**End of "Safe and Sound and More"...**_


End file.
